Light-driven Supramolecular Chiral Materials: Photoinduced Control of Liquid-crystalline Helical Structures and Non-destructive Erasable Molecular Memory for Photonic Applications

摘要

Light-driven supramolecular chiral materials containing an azobenzene moiety as a photoresponsive part and binaphthyl moiety as a chiral part were designed. We found that the dynamic molecular twisting motion of the binaphthyl moiety could be achieved by irradiation of UV or visible light to cause photoisomerization of the azobenzene moiety. The twisting motion induced by the photochromic reaction gave rise to large change in the molecular structure and the value of optical rotation. The chiral materials were demonstrated to behave uniquely as photomodulation of liquid-crystalline helical structures and non-destructive erasable chiroptical memory through photoinduced switching of the dihedral angle of the binaphthyl moiety.