Dithienylethene-Based Photoswitchable Catalysts: State of the Art and Future Perspectives
Debashis Majee, Stanislav I. Presolski
Abstract
Dithienylethenes (DTEs) are a rare class of small molecules, which are capable of undergoing photochemical electrocyclization that is rapid, reversible, and most importantly—thermally forbidden. This makes them the ideal scaffold for building catalysts that can be activated and deactivated on demand with short pulses of light of the appropriate wavelength. In the following Perspective, we review the strategies toward achieving photoswitchable control with DTE metal-chelating and organocatalytic ligands, compare their effectiveness with a "dynamic range" metric that we introduce, and highlight the various development milestones. Lastly, we outline potential avenues for further growth of this relatively young field of molecular catalysis.