Recent Progress in Photoswitchable Supramolecular Self‐Assembling Systems

Abstract

The rise of supramolecular chemistry has drawn great attention to the designed self‐assembly of synthetic molecules. Supramolecular self‐assembly has become an efficient strategy in constructing well‐ordered nanostructures using a bottom‐up way in material science and has also shown its great potential in biological applications. Photochromic compounds are small organic molecules which can undergo reversible photochemical reactions between two chemical species with distinct properties. They have been incorporated into various materials for applications including optical devices, data recording and storage, smart polymers, and so forth. Introducing photochromic compounds into supramolecular self‐assembling systems endows the supramolecular nanostructures or materials with intriguing responsive behavior to light, which can be conveniently orthogonal to other stimuli. From another perspective, the well‐ordered supramolecular structures or materials with complexity and stimuli‐responsive properties have the capability to “amplify” the light‐controlled isomerization by transforming it into other signals, thus producing more sophisticated functions. This review mainly highlights the recent advances and emerging fields in fabricating artificial supramolecular self‐assembling systems with photochromic compounds as light‐responsive units. Important design principles, mechanisms and concepts, as well as challenges and perspectives are illustrated and discussed.