A smart cyclic azobenzene as pendant groups on polymer chains: topological effect of the cyclization on thermal and photoresponsive properties of the azobenzene and the polymer

Jiangyu Li; Nianchen Zhou; Zhengbiao Zhang; Ying Xu; Xinrong Chen; Yingfeng Tu; Zhijun Hu; Xiulin Zhu

doi:10.1002/asia.201300154

A smart cyclic azobenzene as pendant groups on polymer chains: topological effect of the cyclization on thermal and photoresponsive properties of the azobenzene and the polymer

Chem Asian J. 2013 Jun;8(6):1095-100. doi: 10.1002/asia.201300154. Epub 2013 Apr 15.

Authors

Jiangyu Li¹, Nianchen Zhou, Zhengbiao Zhang, Ying Xu, Xinrong Chen, Yingfeng Tu, Zhijun Hu, Xiulin Zhu

Affiliation

¹ Jiangsu Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Soochow University, Renai Road 199, Suzhou 215123, China.

PMID: 23589514
DOI: 10.1002/asia.201300154

Abstract

Put a ring on it: A cyclic azobenzene has a much higher melting point, stronger fluorescence, and better film-forming and SRG-formation ability than its linear precursor. Pcyclic-AzoMMA, with cyclic azobenzene pendant groups, has a much higher Tg value (100 °C) than Plinear-AzoMMA, with linear pendants groups (58 °C), and the modulation depth of the photoinduced SRG of Pcyclic-AzoMMA is thirty times larger than that of Plinear-AzoMMA.