title: Study on photochromism of diarylethenes with a 2,5-dihydropyrrole bridging unit: a convenient preparation of 3,4-diarylpyrroles from 3,4-diaryl-2,5-dihydropyrroles.
abstract: Symmetric and nonsymmetric diarylethenes with a 2,5-dihydropyrrole bridging unit have been prepared, and the photochromic properties are investigated. Both symmetric and nonsymmetric diarylethenes with 2,5-dihydropyrrole bridging units undergo reversible ring-opening and ring-closing photoisomerization reactions in nonpolar solvents with UV/vis light, and some of them exhibit good fatigue resistance and no marked degradation detected after 10 cycles via an on/off switch. In polar solvents, however, photochromic diarylethenes with 2,5-dihydropyrrole bridging units produce 3,4-diarylpyrrole derivatives instead of the ring-closing isomer of diarylethenes with UV light irradiation. A class of N-substituted 3,4-diphenylethenes with 2,5-dihydropyrrole bridging units were prepared and used as templates to investigate the conversion reactions. The mechanism of photoconversion of 3,4-diaryl-2,5-dihydropyrroles to 3,4-diarylpyrroles was explored as well.
authors.affiliation: Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. yichencas@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: De X
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yi Z
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Dang