Synthesis, Kinetics and Applications Properties of a New Hybrid Photochromic Diarylethene

A new asymmetrical photochromic diarylethene 1-[2-methyl-5-(3-methylphenyl)-3-thienyl]-2[2-methyl-benzofuran-3yl]perfluorocyelopentene (1a) was synthesized and its phtochromic, fluorescence, kinetics and optical recording properties were investigated in detail. This compound exhibited remarkable photochromism, changing from colorless to violet after irradiation with 297 nm UV light both in solution and in PMMA film. In hexane, the kinetic experiments showed that the cyclization/cycloreversion process of the compound was determined to be the zeroth/first reaction, and the cyclization/cycloreversion quantum yields were 0.348 and 0.026, respectively. Finally, photo-mode rewritable optical storage using 1a was performed, the result demonstrate this diarylethene has promising application for data storage.