Photoisomerization of Azobenzene Derivatives in Nanostructured Silica
Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: A series of derivatized azobenzene molecules are synthesized such that one of the phenyl groups can be chemically bonded to mesostructured silica and the other, derivatized with dendrons, is free to undergo large-amplitude light-driven motion. The silica frameworks on which the motion takes place are either 150 nm thick films containing ordered hexagonal arrays of tubes (inner diameter about 2 nm) containing the bonded azobenzenes, or particles (about 500 nm in diameter) containing the same ordered arrays of functionalized tubes. The photoisomerization yields and the rate constants for the thermal cis to trans back-reaction of the azobenzenes in the tubes are measured and compared to those of the molecules in solution. The rate constants decrease with increasing size of the dendrons. Fluorescence spectra of the cis and trans isomers in the pores show that the photoisomerization in the nanostructured materials is selectively driven by specific wavelengths of light and is reversible.
DOI: 10.1021/jp0641334
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Spectroscopically Determined Excited State Properties and Photochemical Reactivities of Inorganic Compounds, NSF-EC Cooperative Activity in Materials Research: Light-Induced Motion in Nanostructured Silicate Materials, Acquisition of X-ray Powder Diffraction Equipment for 21st Century Materials Research and Education
OpenAlex ID: W2318923993