Eliminating Fatigue in Surface-Bound Spiropyrans.

ABSTRACT: This paper describes an experimental approach to eliminating the loss of reversibility that surface-bound spiropyrans exhibit when switched with light. Although such fatigue can be controlled in other contexts, on surfaces, the photochromic compounds are held in close proximity to each other and relatively few molecules modulate the properties of a device, leading to a loss of functionality after only a few switching cycles. The switching process was characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy and differences in tunneling currents in the spiropyran and merocyanine forms using eutectic Ga-In. Self-assembled monolayers comprising only the photochromic compounds degraded rapidly, while mixed monolayers with hexanethiol showed different behaviors depending on the relative humidity. Under dry c

SUBMITTER: Kumar S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6816012 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature