Metal-organic frameworks offer tremendous potential for efficient separation of molecular mixtures. Different pore sizes and suitable functionalizations of the framework allow for an adjustment of the static selectivity. Here we report membranes which offer dynamic control of the selectivity by remote signals, thus enabling a continuous adjustment of the permeate flux. This is realized by assem...

An understanding of the photoisomerization mechanism of molecules bound to a metal surface at the molecular scale is required for designing photoswitches at surfaces. It has remained a challenge to correlate the surface structure and isomerization of photoswitches at ambient conditions. Herein, the photoisomerization of a self-assembled monolayer of azobenzene-thiol molecules on a Au surface wa...

The fabrication of rewriteable liquid crystal (LC) cells using high-damage-threshold photoswitchable azobenzene materials has been investigated as a route to all-optical active beam shapers. Beam shapers are used to modulate the intensity profile of OMEGA EP's petawatt-peak-power laser beams. All-optical photoswitchable beam shapers would allow intensity profile tailoring to occur at higher-flu...

Hyperbranched poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)s (HBPNIPAMs) end-capped with different azobenzene chromophores (HBPNIPAM-Azo-OC3H7, HBPNIPAM-Azo-OCH3, HBPNIPAM-Azo, and HBPNIPAM-Azo-COOH) were successfully synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of N-isopropylacrylamide using different azobenzene-functional initiators. All HBPNIPAMs showed a similar highly branched structure, simil...

We studied Langmuir and Langmuir–Blodgett monolayers from amphiphiles with traditional (carboxylic) and bulky functionalized (epoxy) terminal groups at the air–water and air–solid interfaces. We demonstrated that the molecules with a central azobenzene fragment and carboxylic (AA-1 molecule) and bulky epoxy (AE-1 molecule) polar groups formed orthorhombic unit cells with larger than expected ar...

We report a novel way to modulate the elastic modulus of azobenzene containing liquid crystal networks (LCNs) by exposure to light. The elastic modulus can cycle between different levels by controlling the illumination conditions. Exposing the polymer network to UV light near the trans absorption band of azobenzene gives a small reduction of the glass transition temperature thereby lowering the...

The photoinduced isomerization and thermal back relaxation of an azobenzene-functionalized polymer poly(disperse red 1 acrylate) were investigated at increasing external pressures up to 1.5 GPa inside a diamond-anvil spectroscopic cell. The thermal cis-trans isomerization was monitored by laser pump-probe spectroscopy, which demonstrated an increase in the half-life of the isomerization process...

In this paper the photocontrolled manipulation of solid materials on the surface of a liquid crystalline thin film is described. Three different types of films namely cholesteric liquid crystal (ChLC), compensated nematic liquid crystal (NLC) and nematic LC were used. The rotational and translational manipulation of the microscale solid object was induced by irradiation of light and mode of man...

We describe not only fleeting assembly of photoisomerizable azobenzene-based palladium complexes into microstructured crystalline architectures but also their light-responsive functions. A transformation in the crystalline morphology from two-dimensional (2D) parallelogram-like sheets to three-dimensional (3D) cuboid- or rhombus-like structures was achieved by changing the solvent from tetrahyd...

Light-induced shape transformations represent a fundamental step towards the emergence of adaptive materials exhibiting photomechanical behaviours. Although a range of covalent azobenzene-based photoactive materials has been demonstrated, the use of dynamic photoisomerization in mesostructured soft solids involving non-covalent co-assembly has received little attention. Here we prepare discrete...