Photochromic polymers bearing various diarylethene chromophores as the pendant: synthesis, optical properties, and multicolor photochromism

Abstract

Photochromic polymers with various diarylethene derivatives were synthesized by a conventional radical polymerization of styrene derivatives having diarylethene chromophores as the pendant. All the polymers exhibited reversible photochromism in the film as well as in solution, while the photocyclization conversion in the film decreased in comparison with that in solution because of a restriction of the conformational structure in the solid state. Although the photocyclization and photocycloreversion quantum yields at the initial stage of the reactions in the film were comparable to those in solution, the apparent cycloreversion quantum yield decreased along with the reaction, which is derived from a distribution of the quantum yields in the solid state. Finally, the photochromic terpolymers consisting of three diarylethene monomers which show photochromism changing color to cyan, magenta, and yellow were synthesized. The terpolymers were demonstrated to show bright colors including black, green, red, and blue both in solution and in the solid state by selective bleaching processes. Such multicolor photochromic polymers composed of diarylethene derivatives have a potential for rewritable photochromic display devices.

Photoinduced cytotoxicity of a photochromic diarylethene via caspase cascade activation

“…As reported in our previous paper, diarylethene 1o showed photochromism in organic solvents, 16 and diarylethene derivative 1o also showed photochromism even in solvents containing a large amount of water. Figure 1 shows the spectral changes of 1o in a mixed solvent consisting of ethanol and water (7:3 v/v).…”

Quantitative Evaluation of Photoinduced Bending Speed of Diarylethene Crystals

“…Diarylethenes 1, 3, and 6 were synthesized according to a procedure described in the literature [11,38,39]. Diarylethenes 2, 4, and 5 were synthesized as shown in Supporting Information.…”

Esterifiable/hydrolytic control of photochromism of diarylethenes with 8-hydroxyquinoline derivatives

“…Generally, it is hard to keep in an isomer under UV/Vis light irradiation, especially in the ring-closing isomer. Addition of external stimulations, such as chemical reaction [6][7][8][9], heat [10], photon [11,12], electric field [13][14][15][16] etc., to some diarylethenes with special derivative structures will be able to achieve stability of one configuration. Addition of acid/alkali is one of most usually used chemical methods to control reversibility of isomerization of diarylethene [17][18][19][20].…”