Reaction Kinetics and Optical Storage Characters of a New Diarylethene Materials with Composite Properties

Photochromism; Diarylethene materials; Fluorecence; Reaction kinetics. Abstract. A new unsymmetrical photochromic diarylethene, 1-(2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(4-formyl-phenyl)-3-thienyl]perfluorocyclopentene (1a), was synthesized, and its photochromic properties and reaction kinetics were investigated, respectively. The compound exhibited good photochromism both in solution and in PMMA film with alternating irradiation by UV/Vis light. The cyclization processes of compound 1a belong to the zeroth order reaction, while the cycloreversion processes belong to the first order reaction. The optical recording results indicated that the new photochromic diarylethene can be applied in high capacity optical storage.