Electroswitchable systems

The use of molecular switches in solution phase has recently received attention (de Silva et al., 1997). Photochemical logic gates shown AND, OR, XOR, NOR, and INH functionality have been reported, whereas electrochemical storage of information via electroswitchable systems (Katz et al., 2004), electrochemical transduction of photonically or electrochemically encoded information, and electrochemi-cal/photochemical information processing (Willner et al., 2001 Perez-Inestrosa... 

Perhaps the most remarkable photoswitchable system based on this concept is that shown in 11.55 (Scheme 11.9), which represents a system that is both photo- and electroswitchable. As with 11.53, the open BIS-OH form is electrochemically inert. Photoswitching to the closed form enables the molecule to be oxidised easily to the bis(quinone) BIS-Oq. The quinone form is photochemically inert and cannot revert back to an open form until re-reduced. The system is of interest in the context of information storage applications. It represents a chemical approach to the EDRAW (erase direct read after write) mode... 

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