A novel family of azobenzene-based photochromic amorphous molecular materials has been created. They were found to readily form amorphous glasses with well-defined glass-transition temperatures and to exhibit photochromism as amorphous films as well as in solution. It was found that their quantum yields of trans-cis photoisomerization were smaller as amorphous films than in solution and that the backward cis-trans thermal isomerization reactions as amorphous films were either accelerated or retarded relative to those in solution, depending upon their molecular structures. In addition, the rate acceleration for the cis-trans thermal isomerization as amorphous films relative to solution was found to be more prominent as the irradiation time for generating the cis-isomer became shorter.
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