Photochromic Dendrimers for Photoswitched Solid-To-Liquid Transitions and Solar Thermal Fuels

Dendrimers are well-defined, highly branched macromolecules that have been widely applied in the fields of catalysis, sensing, and biomedicine. Here, we present a novel multifunctional photochromic dendrimer fabricated through grafting azobenzene units onto dendrimers, which not only enables controlled switching of adhesives and effective repair of coating scratches but also realizes high-performance solar energy storage and on-demand heat release. The switchable adhesives and healable coatings of azobenzene-containing dendrimers are attributed to the reversible solid-to-liquid transitions because trans-isomers and cis-isomers have different glass transition temperatures. The adhesion strengths increase significantly with the increase in dendrimer generations, wherein the adhesion strength of fifth-generation photochromic dendrimers (G5-Azo) can reach up to 1.62 MPa, five times higher than that of pristine azobenzenes. The solar energy storage and heat release of dendrimer solar thermal fuels, the isomers of which possess different chemical energies, can be also enhanced remarkably with the amplification of azobenzene groups on dendrimers. The storage energy density of G5-Azo can reach 59 W h kg–1, which is much higher than that of pristine azobenzenes (36 W h kg–1). The G5-Azo fuels exhibit a 5.2 °C temperature difference between cis-isomers and trans-isomers. These findings provide a new perspective and tremendously attractive avenue for the fabrication of photoswitchable adhesives and coatings and solar thermal fuels with dendrimer structures.