F.
Terao, M. Morimoto, M. Irie
Angew.
Chem. Int. Ed., 51, 901-904 (2012)
@@@Piezoelectric crystals are useful in industrial and consumer applications
because of their special characteristic: they can be bent by electricity.
But, the crystals require wire connection so the electricity can be supplied.
Wire connection prevents their use in water and size-reduction to micrometer-scale.
Here, we report on wireless molecular-crystal actuators, which work upon
photoirradiation. Rod-like mixed crystals of 1-(5-methyl-2-phenyl-4-thiazolyl)-2-(5-methyl-2-p-tolyl-4-thiazolyl)perfluoro-cyclopentene (1a) and 1,2-(5-methyl-2-p-tolyl-4-thiazolyl)- perfluorocyclopentene (2a) with size ranging from micrometer to mm were found to exhibit rapid (response
time < 5 microseconds), reversible and fatigue resistant bending over
1,000 cycles upon alternate irradiation with UV (365 nm) and visible (>
500 nm) light. The rod-like crystal readily bends toward the UV light source
and even curls into a hairpin shape. In situ X-ray crystallographic analysis
revealed that the shrinkage of b-axis of the crystal, which corresponds
to the long axis of the rod-like crystal, causes the bending and curling.
The crystal performs the mechanical motion even in water and has extremely
wide range of working temperature (4.6 K < T < 370 K). The photogenerated
maximum stress was estimated to be 56 MPa, which is comparable to that
of piezoelectric crystals.
Light-Driven
Molecular Crystal Actuators: Rapid and Reversible Bending of Rodlike Mixed
Crystals of Diarylethene Derivatives