A simple strategy for constructing acylhydrazone photochromic system with visible color/emission change and its application in photo-patterning

As a potential photochromic system, acylhydrazones exhibit many outstanding advantages including low cost, simple synthesis and high modifiability compared with some classic photochromic systems. However, the absorptionwavelengths of acylhydrazones usually locate in ultraviolet region, which makes the band separation between the absorbance maxima of its irradiated and unirradiated forms cannot be observed by naked eyes and greatly limits their practical applications. In this work, a simple strategy for constructing acylhydrazone photochromic system with visible color/emission change is provided. Rhodamine 6G hydrazine-2-aldehyde-pyridine Schiff base (compound 3) is designed and synthesized by combining acylhydrazone with Rhodamine 6G structure. The introduction of Rhodamine 6G moiety to 3 not only makes it remain all the advantages of acylhydrazone photochromic system but also exhibits visible photo-induced color/emission changes both in solution and in a solid matrix. Moreover, 3 exhibits reversible photochromic property with good fatigue resistance, which makes it an excellent candidate for photo-patterning.