Light-Powered Dissipative Assembly of Diazocine Coordination Cages.

Stimuli-responsive coordination cages allow reversible control over guest binding and release, relevant for adaptive receptors, carriers, catalysts, and complex systems. Light serves as an advantageous stimulus, as it can be applied with precise spatial and temporal resolution without producing chemical waste products. We report the first Pd-mediated coordination cage based on ligands embedding a diazocine photoswitch.

Synthetic Photoswitchable Neurotransmitters Based on Bridged Azobenzenes.

Photoswitchable neurotransmitters of ionotropic kainate receptors were synthesized by tethering a glutamate moiety to disubstituted C2-bridged azobenzenes, which were prepared through a novel methodology that allows access to diazocines with higher yields and versatility. Because of the singular properties of these photochromes, photoisomerizable compounds were obtained with larger thermal stability for their inert cis isomer than for their biologically activity trans state. This enabled selective neuronal firing upon irradiation without background activity in the dark.

Synthesis of functionalized diazocines for application as building blocks in photo- and mechanoresponsive materials.

Seven symmetrically 3,3'-substituted diazocines were synthesized. Functional groups include alcohol, azide, amine and vinyl groups, which are suitable for polymer synthesis. Upon irradiation at 385 and 530 nm the diazocines perform a reversible, pincer-type movement switching the 3,3'-distance between 6.