New photochromic diarylethenes bearing a pyridine moiety

A new class of diarylethenes bearing a pyridine unit has been firstly developed and their properties such as photochromism, fatigue resistance, and fluorescence have been discussed. The pyridine unit was connected directly to the central cyclopentene ring as one aryl moiety and availably participated in the photoinduced cyclization reaction even in the crystalline phase. All of these diarylethenes exhibited excellent photochromism, remarkable fatigue resistance, and notable fluorescence photoswitches both in solution and in poly(methylmethacrylate) films. Moreover, the different substituents had a significant effect on their properties. The results indicated that the electron-donating substituent could significantly enhance the cyclization quantum yield and depress the cycloreversion quantum yield while the electron-withdrawing group had a notable contribution to the cycloreversion quantum yield and fluorescence quantum yield for these diarylethenes.