Multistate photoswitches beyond on and off

Yang Xu; Yuqi Tang; Quan Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72726-9

Multistate photoswitches beyond on and off

Nat Commun. 2026 May 4;17(1):4029. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-72726-9.

Authors

Yang Xu^{1

2}, Yuqi Tang^{3

4}, Quan Li^{5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Advanced Materials and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
² School of Intelligent Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Wuxi, China.
³ Institute of Advanced Materials and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. yqtang@seu.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Intelligent Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Wuxi, China. yqtang@seu.edu.cn.
⁵ Institute of Advanced Materials and School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. quanli3273@gmail.com.
⁶ School of Intelligent Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Wuxi, China. quanli3273@gmail.com.
⁷ Materials Science Graduate Program, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA. quanli3273@gmail.com.

Abstract

Molecular photoswitches are compounds that undergo isomerization between at least two distinct states upon light irradiation, accompanied by pronounced changes in their physicochemical properties. The incorporation of photoswitches into material systems enables light-triggered switching of material properties. Multistate photoswitches are attracting considerable attention because of their manipulation of light-controllable states and wider application when compared to traditional binary photoswitches. In this Perspective, we discuss the rapidly advancing field of multistate photoswitches, exploring the evolution of the field, fundamental principles, key design strategies, representative examples, diverse emerging applications, as well as the current challenges and future research directions.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

202141/Innovative Team of Jiangsu Province