The journal ChemComm (RSC) published a paper on the research conducted under the supervision of prof. Katarzyna Jarzembska entitled „An optically reversible room-temperature solid-state cobalt(III) photoswitch based on nitro-to-nitrito linkage isomerism”. The work was featured on the front cover of this journal.
Photoswitchable materials find a variety of applications in the field of optoelectronics, medicine, solar energy conversion technologies or data storage. Industrially desirable materials of this kind should operate under ambient conditions, be relatively stable, cheap, non-toxic and easy to synthesize with high efficiency. In turn, the light-induced transformation should be selective, efficient, controllable, reversible and reproducible. The group of prof. Jarzembska (http://www.photocrystallography.eu) showed that a simple nitro complex of cobalt(III) has most of the above features, which distinguishes it from the so far widely studied nitro complexes of other transition metals. The isomerization reaction from the nitro (Co-N(O)2) to nitrito (Co-ONO) binding mode proceeds with good efficiency (> 55%) in a solid state at room temperature, which is unique for this class of compounds (they are usually photoactive below 260 K). Importantly, the nitro-to-nitrito isomerization can be triggered optically both ways, i.e. ca. 470 nm light induces the nitro-to-endo-nitrito transformation, while 570−660 nm – the reverse process. The study opens up a new direction towards effective optically-reversible photoswitchable compounds working under ambient conditions, which is of great importance regarding potential future in technological applications.
The research and publication of the article were possible thanks to the support of the PRELUDIUM BIS grant (2019/35/O/ST4/04197), whereas the „open access” formula was financed by the IDUB UW.
Bibliographic data and link to the article:
K. A. Deresz, R. Kamiński, S. E. Kutniewska, A. Krówczyński, D. Schaniel and K. N. Jarzembska, Chem. Commun., 2022, 58, 13439
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/CC/D2CC05134F
