Abstract
The light induced behaviour of siloxane substituted azobenzene compounds in the presence of alkylene spacers is reported for the first time. Firstly, these photosensitive compounds were synthesized and elucidated the molecular structure by spectral analysis such as NMR, FTIR, and UV/Vis. Photoisomerization effect was evaluated in solution and also in nematic phase. The photosaturation occurred exactly at 29 seconds, whereas thermal back relaxation was observed ranging from 19.8 to 23.8 hours. Long duration of the thermal back relaxation is due to the presence of sterically hindered siloxane group substituted to the azobenzene molecules. Decrease in the duration of cis-trans isomerization was found when the number of alkylene spacers was increased. These siloxane based azobenzene derivatives are useful for the fabrication of optical storage device and molecular switches.
Highlights
The data can be optically stored by a device with the influence of suitable light
The phenomenon is called optical storage and the gadget is known as optical storage device [1]
Performance of the optical storage device is based on the nature of chemical structure [4] and functional group [2] of the organic compounds which are used
Summary
The data can be optically stored by a device with the influence of suitable light. The phenomenon is called optical storage and the gadget is known as optical storage device [1]. Many researchers reported the light induced effects and liquid crystal properties of azobenzene derivatives [6, 9,10,11]. Most of the azo dyes which show photoisomerization can be used in guest-host system [20, 21] It means that the guest azobenzene derivatives can mix with host liquid crystal compounds and the light induced properties can be analysed. Light induced properties of azobenzene differ with varieties of structure, spacers, and functional group associated with it. Synthesis of organosilicon has great importance in material chemistry research, due to the thermal and electrical conductivity of silicon derivatives [29]. Our interest is to evaluate the effect caused by alkyl chains in the photoisomerization of siloxane substituted azobenzene derivatives. This might show dramatic optical activities because of the spacers and bulky siloxane substitution
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