Current Progress in Molecular Photoswitches Based on Hexaarylbiimidazole： Molecular Design and Synthesis, Properties and Application

doi:10.7517/j.issn.1674-0475.2014.01.043

Abstract

Abstract:

Hexaarylbiimidazole(HABI)was first discovered as photochromic material in 1960 by Hayashi and Maeda when they investigated the chemiluminescence formed by oxidation of 2,4,5-triphenylimidazole. HABI is new photochromism material, which also possess thermochromism and piezochromism. The photochromism mechanism of HABI is the photo-induced homogeneous cleavage of the C—N bond between the two imidazole rings followed by the formation of two triphenylimidazole radical. As the speed of the colored species dimerizes to HABI (colorless species) is very slow (τ_1/2 is about minutes) and the triphenylimidazole radicals are relatively reactive, the fatigue resistance is very poor. In recent years, Jiro Abe's group proposed an idea of using a "bridge structure" to inhibit the diffusion of TPIRs. In this way the decay half-life of the TPIR reduced from minutes to tens of micro seconds. Lately, they applied modified HABIs in holographic imaging, which exhibits the great potential of HABI as photochromic materials. Meanwhile, designing and synthesizing proper fluorescent HABI photoswitches and their applications to super-resolution microscopy imaging are undertaken in our group.

Key words: hexaarylbiimidazole(HABI), triphenylimidazole radical(TPIR), photochromism, fluorescence molecular switches, holographic imaging, super-resolution fluorescence imaging

GONG Wenliang, XIONG Zujin, ZHU Mingqiang. Current Progress in Molecular Photoswitches Based on Hexaarylbiimidazole： Molecular Design and Synthesis, Properties and Application[J]. Imaging Science and Photochemistry, 2014, 32(1): 43-59.

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