Diazocines, bridged azobenzenes, exhibit superior photophysical properties compared to parent azobenzenes such as high switching efficiencies, quantum yields, and particularly switching wavelengths in the visible range. Synthesis, however, proceeds with low yields, and derivatives are difficult to prepare. We now present two heterodiazocines which are easier to synthesize, and the general procedures should also provide facile access to derivatives. Moreover, both compounds can be switched with light in the far-red (650 nm). Accessibility and photophysical properties make them ideal candidates for applications such as photoswitchable drugs and functional materials.
Structurally well-defined arrangements of multiple functional groups can be prepared by self-assembly of mixed monolayers based on molecular platforms.
Triazatriangulenium ions have previously been used as platforms to prepare self-assembled monolayers of functional molecules such as azobenzenes with vertical orientation and that are free-standing on gold surfaces. We have now prepared azobenzenes that are spanned between two posts which are attached on two platforms. Absorbed on a gold surface, the azobenzene should be laterally oriented at a distance of more than 4 Å above and thus electronically decoupled from the surface, and the system should perform a muscle-type movement upon isomerization.
Triazatriangulenium (TATA) platforms have been used to prepare highly ordered, self-assembled monolayers of free- and vertically standing imines on Au(111) surfaces. Upon irradiation, the imines undergo trans-cis isomerization and a fast thermal reaction (t1/2 =0.58 s at 20 °C) back to the more stable trans form. It is known that the photochemical reaction proceeds through rotation of the C=N bond and the thermochemical reaction through inversion at the N atom. The imine motors, therefore, should be able to induce a net displacement of particles above the surface similar to cilia epithelia in nature.
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