title: meta-Oligoazobiphenyls - synthesis via site-selective Mills reaction and photochemical properties.
abstract: The investigation of multi-photochromic compounds constitutes a great challenge, not only from a synthetic point of view, but also with respect to the analysis of the photochemical properties. In this context we designed a novel strategy to access meta-oligoazobiphenyls via site-selective Mills reaction and Suzuki cross-coupling in a highly efficient iterative way. Photochemical examination of the resulting monomeric and oligomeric azo compounds revealed that the overall degree of switching was independent of the connected azo-units. However, one of the azobonds in the bis-azobiphenyl is isomerized preferentially despite the high structural similarity.
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Department of Chemistry, St. Johanns-Ring 19, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.forename: Hermann A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Wegner