Norbornadiene-Based Photoswitches with Exceptional Combination of Solar Spectrum Match and Long-Term Energy Storage.

Norbornadiene-quadricyclane (NBD-QC) photoswitches are candidates for applications in solar thermal energy storage. Functionally, they rely on an intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, which couples the S0 landscape on the NBD side to the S1 landscape on the QC side of the reaction and vice-versa. This commonly results in an unfavourable correlation between the first absorption maximum and the barrier for thermal back-conversion. This work demonstrates that this correlation can be counteracted by using steric repulsion to hamper the rotational motion of the side groups along the back-conversion path. It is shown that this modification reduces the correlation between the effective back-conversion barrier and the first absorption maximum and also increases the back-conversion entropy. The resulting molecules exhibit exceptionally long half-lives for their metastable forms without significantly affecting other properties, most notably solar spectrum match and storage density.

Inverting the Selectivity of the Newman-Kwart Rearrangement via One Electron Oxidation at Room Temperature.

The discovery that the Newman-Kwart rearrangement can be performed at room temperature by action of a simple and readily available oxidant, cerium ammonium nitrate, is described. The conditions give clean conversion when using electron-rich aromatic substrates, and the reactions are often quantitative. Computational studies support a reaction mechanism where the O-thiocarbamate is first oxidized to the radical cation, followed by nucleophilic attack by the ipso carbon of the aromatic system.

Aluminum Chloride Mediated Alkynylation of Boron Subphthalocyanine Chloride Using Trimethylsilyl-Capped Acetylenes.

A mild and versatile procedure is presented for functionalization of boron chloride subphthalocyanine at the axial boron position with trimethylsilyl-protected alkyne nucleophiles in the presence of aluminum chloride. The method allows a large variety of substituents on the alkyne units, including electron-donating/withdrawing aryl groups, silyl-protected alkynyl groups, as well as ferrocenyl and azulenyl groups. In addition, ferrocene itself reacts smoothly under these conditions allowing for directly anchoring it to the boron of the subphthalocyanine.

Controlling two-step multimode switching of dihydroazulene photoswitches.

We present the synthesis and switching studies of systems with two photochromic dihydroazulene (DHA) units connected by a phenylene bridge at either para or meta positions, which correspond to a linear or cross-conjugated pathway between the photochromes. According to UV/Vis absorption and NMR spectroscopic measurements, the meta-phenylene-bridged DHA-DHA exhibited sequential light-induced ring openings of the two DHA units to their corresponding vinylheptafulvenes (VHFs). Initially, the VHF-DHA species was generated, and, ultimately, after continued irradiation, the VHF-VHF species. Studies in different solvents and quantum chemical calculations indicate that the excitation of DHA-VHF is no longer a local DHA excitation but a charge-transfer transition that involves the neighboring VHF unit. For the linearly conjugated para-phenylene-bridged dimer, electronic communication between the two units is so efficient that the photoactivity is reduced for both the DHA-DHA and DHA-VHF species, and DHA-DHA, DHA-VHF, and VHF-VHF were all present during irradiation. In all, by changing the bridging unit, we can control the degree of stepwise photoswitching.