Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This paper describes a series of four indolinooxazolidine molecular switches capable of accessing multiple distinct states by separately addressing photo- and stereo-isomerism. Photoswitches serve as valuable components in molecular devices owing to their ability to isomerize between distinct states using light as a non-invasive input. While most photoswitches are binary, converting between two states, multistate switches offer expanded operational capabilities and show promise for multi-bit architectures. We synthesized a series of four indolinooxazolidines with varied electronic structure and examined their switching behavior in different solvents. While electron-withdrawing substituents inhibit the photoisomerization pathway, the incorporation of an oligoethylene glycol chain enables both reversible photoisomerisation and acidochromic switching between six combinations of photo- and stereo-isomers.
DOI: 10.1039/d5cp02098k
Institutions: University of Groningen, North Carolina State University
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4412601037