Research on Photochromic Compounds with Synthesis and Properties of a Novel Unsymmetrical Diarylethene with a Benzothiophene and a Pyrrole Group

Abstract

A new unsymmetrical photochromic diarylethene 1o, which is named [1-(2-methyl-benzothiophene)-2-(2-cyano-1,5-dimethyl-4-pyrryl)]perfluorocyclopentene, was synthesized. We used it to accomplish recording by optical storage technology as memory medium. Then its photochromic both in hexane solution and in PMMA film and kinetics experiment were investigated in detail. The result indicated that this diarylethene had good thermal stability and exhibited reversible photochromism, changing the color from colorless to violet in hexane solution upon appropriate irradiation with 297 nm UV light, respectively. What is more, the kinetic experiments illustrated that the cyclization/cycloreversion process of this compound was determined to be the zeroth/first reaction. The results demonstrated that the unsymmetrical diarylethene compound 1o, which we have synthesized, had attractive properties for potential application in optical storage.