Organic photoresponse materials and devices are critically important to organic optoelectronics and energy crises. The activities of photoresponse in organic materials can be summarized in three effects, photoconductive, photovoltaic and optical memory effects. Correspondingly, devices based on the three effects can be divided into (i) photoconductive devices such as photodetectors, photoreceptors, photoswitches and phototransistors, (ii) photovoltaic devices such as organic solar cells, and (iii) optical data storage devices. It is expected that this systematic analysis of photoresponse materials and devices could be a guide for the better understanding of structure–property relationships of organic materials and provide key clues for the fabrication of high performance organic optoelectronic devices, the integration of them in circuits and the application of them in renewable green energy strategies (critical review, 452 references).

Organic photoresponse materials and devices

Precise control over molecular movement is of fundamental and practical importance in physics, biology, and chemistry. At nanoscale, the peculiar functioning principles and the synthesis of individual molecular actuators and machines has been the subject of intense investigations and debates over the past 60 years. In this review, we focus on the design of collective motions that are achieved by integrating, in space and time, several or many of these individual mechanical units together. In particular, we provide an in-depth look at the intermolecular couplings used to physically connect a number of artificial mechanically active molecular units such as photochromic molecular switches, nanomachines based on mechanical bonds, molecular rotors, and light-powered rotary motors. We highlight the various functioning principles that can lead to their collective motion at various length scales. We also emphasize how their synchronized, or desynchronized, mechanical behavior can lead to emerging functional properties and to their implementation into new active devices and materials.

Design of Collective Motions from Synthetic Molecular Switches, Rotors, and Motors

[reaction: see text] Photochromic diarylethene derivatives having benzofuran heteroaryl groups, bis(2-methyl-1-benzofuran-3-yl)perfluorocyclopentene and bis(2-butyl-1-benzofuran-3-yl)perfluorocyclopentene, were synthesized, and their photochromic performance was examined in hexane solution as well as in the single-crystalline phase. The compounds exhibited photochromic reactivity even in the single-crystalline phase.

Photochromism of bis(2-alkyl-1-benzofuran-3-yl)perfluorocyclopentene derivatives.

Introduction of isopropyl substituents to 2 and 2′ positions of benzothiophene rings of bis(1-benzothiophen-3-yl)hexa-fluorocyclopentene increased the population of anti-parallel conformation, and enhanced the quantum yield of the cyclization reaction.

Substitution effect on the coloration quantum yield of a photochromic bisbenzothienylethene

Photoswitchable molecules are able to isomerize between two metastable forms through light stimuli. Originally being studied by photochemists, this type of molecule has now found a wide range of applications within physics, chemistry and biology. The extensive usage of photochromic molecules is due to the two isomers having fundamentally different physical and chemical properties. The most important attribute of a photoswitch is the photoisomerization quantum yield, which defines the efficiency of the photoisomerization event. Here we show how to determine the photoisomerization quantum yield in the solid state and in solution when taking thermal processes into account. The described method together with provided software allows for rapid and accurate determination of the isomerization process for this important class of molecules.

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Determining the Photoisomerization Quantum Yield of Photoswitchable Molecules in Solution and in the Solid State.

Quantum yields of photoreactions of furylfulgides having Me, Et, n-Pr, or i-Pr on the furylalkylidene moiety were measured. The E–Z isomerization was greatly suppressed and the cyclization was accelerated when the alkyl group (R) became bulkier. When R was i-Pr, no E–Z isomerization was observed and the quantum yield of the colorizing cyclization was 0.62.

Fulgides as Efficient Photochromic Compounds. Role of the Substituent on Furylalkylidene Moiety of Furylfulgides in the Photoreaction

Furylfulgides with different sizes of alkyl substituents were synthesized and their photochromic properties were examined. While the quantum yield of coloring reaction increased and the quantum yield of the E-to-Z isomerization decreased as the steric bulkiness of the alkyl substitutent on the 2,5-dimethyl-3-furylmethylidene moiety increased, the bleaching quantum yield increased as the isopropylidene group was replaced by an adamantylidene group. Both effects worked independently, and a furylfulgide with an isopropyl group on the furylmethylidene moiety and an adamantylidene group in one molecule showed the coloring quantum yield of 0.51 (366 nm) and the bleaching quantum yield of 0.26 (492 nm) in toluene.

Masato Yokoyama

Papers

Fulgides as Efficient Photochromic Compounds. Role of the Substituent on Furylalkylidene Moiety of Furylfulgides in the Photoreaction

Effects of Steric Bulkiness of Substituents on Quantum Yields of Photochromic Reactions of Furylfulgides