All-Red-Light Photoswitching of Indirubin Controlled by Supramolecular Interactions

Thumser, Stefan; Koettner, Laura; Hoffmann, Nadine; Mayer, Peter and Dube, Henry (2021): All-Red-Light Photoswitching of Indirubin Controlled by Supramolecular Interactions. In: Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 143, No. 43: pp. 18251-18260

Abstract

Red-light responsiveness of photoswitches is a highly desired property for many important application areas such as biology or material sciences. The main approach to elicit this property uses strategic substitution of long-known photoswitch motives such as azobenzenes or diarylethenes. Only very few photoswitches possess inherent red-light absorption of their core chromophore structures. Here, we present a strategy to convert the long-known purple indirubin dye into a prolific red-light-responsive photoswitch. In a supramolecular approach, its photochromism can be changed from a negative to a positive one, while at the same time, significantly higher yields of the metastable E-isomer are obtained upon irradiation. E- to Z-photoisomerization can then also be induced by red light of longer wavelengths. Indirubin therefore represents a unique example of reversible photoswitching using entirely red light for both switching directions.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Chemistry and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry
• Subjects: 500 Science > 540 Chemistry
• ISSN: 0002-7863
• Language: English