Recent advances in visible-light-responsive photochromic molecules

Abstract

Photochromic compounds have attracted much interest because of their potential to modulate physical and chemical properties by light irradiation. Although UV light has been frequently used to induce photochromic reactions of conventional artificial photochromic molecules, visible light has been utilized in photoreceptors in nature, such as the cis–trans isomerization of retinal in rhodopsin proteins. Visible light has several advantages over UV light, reduction of degradation in devices and mutagenesis of cells and the ability to penetrate into the inside of the sample rather than UV light. Therefore, the development of visible light sensitive photochromic compounds has been recently received much attention. In this review, various molecular designs to develop visible-light-responsive photochromic molecules are overviewed.