Unlocking of interlocked heteropolymer gel by light: photoinduced volume phase transition in an ionic liquid from a metastable state to an equilibrium phase?

Chemical Communications Pub Date: 2012-04-03 DOI: 10.1039/C2CC30830D

Abstract

An azobenzene-containing heteropolymer gel in an ionic liquid exhibits thermally reversible volume phase transition when the azobenzene moiety mainly exists in the cis-state, whereas the transition becomes irreversible when it is in the trans-state and an interlocked collapsed state is stabilized; however, the unlocking of the metastable state occurs by UV light irradiation.

Graphical abstract: Unlocking of interlocked heteropolymer gel by light: photoinduced volume phase transition in an ionic liquid from a metastable state to an equilibrium phase
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