The photochemistry of inverse dithienylethene switches understood.

Photochromism of dithienylethene single crystals having anthracene substituents.

Three dithienylethene derivatives having anthracene substituents (connected at 1-, 2- and 9-positions) were prepared. Although these three derivatives exhibit photochromic reactivity in solution, only one of the derivatives (connected at 2-position) undergoes the photochromic reaction in the crystalline phase. X-Ray crystallographic analysis and DFT calculation revealed that conformation of the...

Construction of photoswitchable rotaxanes and catenanes containing dithienylethene fragments.

Mechanically interlocked structures such as rotaxanes and catenanes provide a novel backbone for constructing functional materials with unique structural characteristics. In this study, we have designed and synthesized a series of photoswitchable rotaxanes and catenanes containing photochromic dithienylethene fragments using a template-directed clipping approach based on dynamic imine chemistry...

Three-state photochromic switching in a silyl bridged diarylethene dimer.

The synthesis and photochemical characterization of bicomponent molecular switches based on covalently tethered dithienylethene photochromes is described. Both photochromic units undergo complete switching between the fully cyclised and fully non-cyclised states despite a significant level of electronic communication between the individual units and their proximity.

Designing efficient photochromic dithienylethene dyads† †Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Comparison between ADC(2) and CAM-B3LYP for a single DTE, conformational study of dyad 1 and basis set effect on the computed optical properties, TD-DFT results for a “normal-inverse” dimer. See DOI: 10.1039/c5sc00856e

Vibrational coherence transfer in an electronically decoupled molecular dyad

The ring opening of a dithienylethene photoswitch incorporated in a bridged boron-dipyrromethene - dithienylethene molecular dyad was investigated with ultrafast spectroscopy. Coherent vibrations in the electronic ground state of the boron-dipyrromethene are triggered after selective photoexcitation of the closed dithienylethene indicating vibrational coupling although the two moieties are elec...