A light-tunable thermoresponsive supramolecular switch with reversible and complete ‘‘off-on’’/‘‘on-off’’ conversion

摘要

Stimuli-responsive polymers have been widely used to design switchable materials and endow them with a ‘‘switchon’’functionwithresponsecharacteristics.However,insomecases,theswitchneedstobe completely switched off even though the external environment changes in specific applications. Herein, we report the first example of a phototunable upper critical solution temperature transition of a binary/ternary supramolecular host-guest system for use as a thermoresponsive supramolecular switch for detecting temperature changes. The obtained supramolecular switch easily achieved reversible and complete ‘‘off-on’’/‘‘on-off’’ conversion of a temperature switch function under alternating UV/visible light irradiation. The smart supramolecular switch as a novel laser sensor device was used to detect temperature changes through an ‘‘off-on’’ or ‘‘on-off’’ mode. This study demonstrates an approach for constructing a new generation of smart materials or switchable materials based on supramolecular systems.