Electron-donating methoxyl group position effect on properties of diarylethene derivatives having a pyrazole unit

New types of asymmetrical photochromic diarylethene derivatives having a pyrazole unit, namely 1-[1,3,5-trimethyl-1-pyrazol-4-yl],2-[2-methyl-5-(4-methoxylphenyl)-1-thien-3-yl]perfluorocyclopentene (1a), 1-[1,3,5-trimethylpyrazol-4-yl],2-[2-methyl-5-(3-methoxylphenyl)-1-thien-3-yl] perfluorocyclopentene (2a), 1-[1,3,5-trimethyl-pyrazol-4-yl],2-[2-methyl-5-(2-methoxylphenyl)-1-thien-3-yl]perfluorocyclopentene (3a), and 1-[1,3,5-trimethyl-pyrazol-4-yl],2-[2-methyl-5-phenyl-1-thien-3-yl]perfluorocyclopentene (4a), were synthesized. Their optical and electrochemical properties, such as photochromism, photochromic cyclization-cycloreversion kinetics, and fluorescence and electrochemical properties were investigated in detail. The results show that all of these compounds have good photochromism, high cycloreversion quantum yield, and relatively strong fluorescence. Their cyclization-cycloreversion processes were determined to be zeroth to first order reactions. The oxidations of diarylethenes 1a-4a were initiated at 0.73, 1.11, 0.79, and 1.03 V, respectively. Furthermore, introduction of the electron-donating methoxyl group at different positions of the terminal phenyl ring was found to strongly influence these optical and electrochemical properties.