Molecular solution-phase switching

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... 

The construction of externally switched solid-state devices awaits development of molecular junctions sandwiched between two electrodes [89]. They may, for example, consist of CyD-based meccano molecules such as rotaxanes (discussed in Chapter 12) for which switching in the solution phase or in monolayers has been demonstrated [21]. 

Balamumgan S, Kannan P, Chuang MT, Wu SL (2010) Antifeiroelectric bent-core liquid crystals for molecular switching applications. Ind Eng Chem Res 49 7121-7128 Ball ZT, Sivula K, Frechet JMJ (2006) Well-defined fullerene-containing homopolymers and diblock copolymers with high fullerene content and their use for solution-phase and bulk organization. Macromolecules 39 70-72... 

Diarylethenes are one of the most promising photochromic materials for such purposes as molecular optical memories and switches, because of their excellent thermal stability and fatigue-resistant nature [51]. A chiral dithienylethene has the potential for non-destructive readout by detecting optical rotation at wavelengths longer than its own absorption band. However, it is not a simple task to achieve appreciable stereoselectivity in solution-phase photocyclization of dithienylethenes, even for those with chiral substituents [52-54]. In this regard, a... 

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