Million-fold Rate Acceleration of Azobenzene Isomerization

“Only effects differing by six orders of magnitude are truly significant” Manfred Eigen (Nobel ‘67)

• Tetrafluoroazobenzene absorbs sunlight, an essential criterion for solar thermal fuels, but has a disadvantage of long lifetime in the higher energy state

• We have addressed this unmet challenge by synthesis of a hybrid chromophore that undergoes rapid isomerization with concomitant heat release

  • Green light makes the metastable form

  • Heat release is triggered by polar environment, contact with glass or ultraviolet light

  • The method accelerates the return to ground state by over 2 x 10⁶ (two million) fold

• Article also enabled notable achievements for student coauthors:

  • This was the first paper for undergraduate Sauceda and the second for undergraduate Mouer

  • Co-author Scott Barrett just completed his PhD