title: New light on the ring-chain equilibrium of a hydrogen-bonded supramolecular polymer based on a photochromic dithienylethene unit and its energy-transfer properties as a storage material.
abstract: A novel, bifunctional, quadruple hydrogen-bonding ureido-pyrimidinone (UPy) unit bridged by photochromic dithienylethene (1) has been synthesized, which affords linear assemblies in solution and undergoes concentration-dependent ring-opening polymerization. The two UPy functional groups of 1 can dimerize intramolecularly to form a cyclic monomer with the two thienyl rings fixed in a parallel conformation, which prohibits its photocyclization. We exploited the photochemical reactivity and resonance difference of the linker of the bis-UPy derivative as well as using the more typical (1)H NMR, DOSY, and Ubbelohde viscometry methods to investigate for the first time the ring-chain polymerization mechanism. Moreover, we fabricated a mixed polymer film with a fluorescent dye noncovalently endcapping the linear photochromic assemblies through quadruple hydrogen bonds, which showed nondestructive fluorescent read-out ability for data storage by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the fluorescent dye to the closed form of the diarylethene.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, PR China.
authors.forename: Shao-Lu
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tangxin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Yihua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Juli
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Leyong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang