Synthesis, crystal structure and photochromic property of a phenethyl viologen bismuth(III) chloride

Abstract

Viologen bismuthate halides generally show photochromic properties. In the present work, phenylethyl alcohol was introduced into chloro bismuthates in the hope to prepare photochromic crystalline materials and finally a photochromic inorganic-organic hybrid, (PeV)₃(Bi₂Cl₉)₂ (1), based on an in situ generated PeV²⁺ cation (PeV²⁺ = phenethylviologen = N,N′-diphenethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium), has been obtained, whose microstructure contains a discrete dimer [Bi₂Cl₉]^3– counterion identified by single crystal X-ray diffraction. More importantly, 1 exhibits a typical photochromic behavior, which can be mainly attributed to the reversible inter-conversion between the monocation viologen radical [PeV]^+• and the viologen dication [PeV]²⁺.

Keywords:

• Phenethyl viologens
• inorganic-organic hybrids
• photochromism
• π–π interactions

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2016J01043), the support of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M612106), Scientific Research Starting Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, Ministry of Education of China (for Dr. Jian-Di Lin), and the Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences (20160025).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.