Photochromic dithienylethene-branched triptycene hybrids

• Triptycene hybrids decorated different dithienylethene units have been developed.
• Multi-dithienylethene switches grafted to triptycene core behaved independently.
• The hybrids exhibit distinctive solvent-dependent photochromism in chloride solvents.

Dithienylethene and triptycene both have controllable structure and versatile performances. In this study, a series of triptycene hybrids decorated different number of dithienylethene units have been developed for photochromic switch. The synthetic process is facile and efficient and all new compounds were clearly characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR and HRMS. Their photochromism and spectroscopic properties have been investigated in dichloromethane and tetrahydrofuran. The result revealed that the multi-dithienylethene units grafted to triptycene behaved independently and showed distinctive solvent-dependent photochromism in chloride solvents, which probably due to the introduction of controlled spatial arrangement of triptycene core. These distinctive characteristics might be potential used for high-density multicomponent switches and detection of chloride solvents.

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