Tuning the photocaged spiropyran photoswitch with a sterically hindered adamantane group: releasing the stable merocyanine
Yifan Su, Xiang Li, Dexin Zheng, Joakim Andréasson, Hong Wang, Le Yu, Jian Chen, Jiani Ma, Yu Fang
Abstract
-nitrobenzyl. A wavelength dependent photorelease of the stable 2MC form is demonstrated for the first time. The detailed photochemical reaction mechanisms of ad-MC and in-MC were investigated using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and DFT/TD-DFT calculations. The results show that the photochemical mechanisms are the same for both molecules, but the variation in excited state hydrogen transfer barriers' heights leads to the observed differences in photolysis yields and rates of decaging. The structure-reactivity relationships revealed for ad-MC and in-MC expand the diversity and functionality of SP-based photoswitches for promising utilization in chemical biology applications.