Photoinduced shape changes of diarylethene single crystals: correlation between shape changes and molecular packing

Correlation between the photoinduced shape changes of diarylethene single crystals and their molecular packing in the crystals was studied. Crystals of 1,2-bis(5-ethyl-2-phenyl-4-thiazolyl)perfluorocyclopentene (3a) and 1,2-bis(2-isopropyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)perfluorocyclopentene (4a) showed similar photoinduced deformation from square to lozenge as that of 1,2-bis(2-ethyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)perfluorocyclopentene (1a). Although these three diarylethenes have different electronic structures and exhibit different colours upon UV irradiation, the crystallographic structures and molecular packing of the crystals are very similar to each other. The result indicates that the deformation mode is determined by the packing mode of component molecules in the crystal. X-Ray crystallographic analysis of a micrometre-sized crystal 1a (20 x 15 x 8 mu m) prepared by sublimation revealed that the small-size crystal, which shows photoinduced deformation, has the same crystal structure as that of the large bulk crystal.