Reversible Photoelectronic Signal Conversion Based on Photoisomerization-Controlled Coordination Change of Azobenzene-bipyridine Ligands to Copper

摘要

The assembly of artificial molecular machines to allow precisely controlled motion that responds to light and electrons is currently a popular research topic in nanoscience.However,the question of how we extract effective "output" from such motion remains to be discussed.We can find many examples of this type of motion in natural molecular machines;for instance,our visual sense uses trans/cis photoisomerization of rhodopsin in the retina,resulting in an electrical signal to the nervous system through a multistep chemical reaction process.This natural approachp-i.e.the relation of a signal receptor and a signal supplier through a reversible chemical reaction-can also be applied to the assembly of an artificial molecular machine.In the present work,we succeeded in relating the photoinduced trans/cis structural conversion of an azobenzene moiety (light receptor) and the redox reaction of a copper complex moiety (electron supplier) through a reversible ligand coordination reaction.