Shuttling Motion in a Host-Guest Complex Triggered by Spiropyran to Merocyanine Reversible Chemical Transformation.
A stimulus-responsive guest-containing spiropyran and viologen unit assembles with a 24-membered crown ether into a stable host-guest complex displaying a partially threaded geometry. Acid addition induces guest transformation to a merocyanine species activating a second recognition site, suitable for the formation of a pseudorotaxane. The simultaneous presence of two recognition sites produces a small-amplitude macrocycle shuttling motion, from the viologen to the merocyanine moiety. Base addition returns the guest to its spiropyran form, and concurrently the translation motion stops.
Departamento de Química, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav) , Ciudad de México 07360, México.
Denhy
D
Hernández-Melo
Departamento de Química, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav) , Ciudad de México 07360, México.
Ruy
R
Cervantes
Departamento de Química, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav) , Ciudad de México 07360, México.
Jorge
0000-0002-8635-5632
J
Tiburcio