Jake Greenfield (@jakeylg.bsky.social)

🚨📢Improving the photoswitching properties of N-alkyl imines, out now in @jacs.acspublications.org 🤔Insights from our previous work led @jiarongwu.bsky.social, Lasse and I to tune the properties of these N-alkyl systems🛠️, where we also observed isomer-dependent fluorescence!💡🔦 doi.org/10.1021/jacs...

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Enhancing the Photoswitching Properties of N-Alkyl Imines N-Alkyl imines are prevalent in dynamic-covalent chemistry and self-assembled structures, yet their E/Z photochromism is often overlooked due to the high-energy light required for isomerization. Here, we present a simple strategy to enhance their photoswitching properties, achieving switching wavelengths and photostationary state distributions comparable to azobenzene. Moreover, we demonstrate that these N-alkyl imines undergo photoisomerization in the condensed phase and exhibit isomer-dependent fluorescence. We anticipate that this study will inspire the design of photoresponsive architectures that operate directly at the dynamic-covalent bond, eliminating the need for dedicated photoswitchable motifs. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c02404