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Photoinduced tuning of aromaticity and correlative molecular properties has attracted enormous interest in recent years both for modulating photochromism properties and designing novel photochromic materials. Here, we report the synthesis and photochemical characterization of diaryl[5]helicene‐based diarylethene molecular switches. 3,4‐Bis(2,4‐dimethyl‐5‐phenylthiophen‐3‐yl)dibenzo[c,g]phenanthrene derivative 1 a showed no photochromic reaction, whereas 3,4‐bis(2‐methyl‐5‐phenylthiophen‐3‐yl)dibenzo[c,g]phenanthrene derivative 2 a and 3,4‐bis(5‐methyl‐2‐phenylthiazol‐4‐yl)dibenzo[c,g]phenanthrene derivative 3 a exhibited reversible photochromism in different aprotic solvents with specific light irradiation. Meanwhile, the diarylethene compounds 2 a and 3 a underwent turn‐off mode fluorescence photoswitching together with photoisomerization upon light irradiation. Remarkably, the photoinduced changes in the aromaticity of [5]helicene as a central ethene bridge along with the relative smaller activation energy and higher frequency factor facilitated the thermal bleaching rates of diarylethene switches 2 and 3 in solution. This research provides new insight for designing aromatic diarylethene photoswitches for reversible fluorescence switching, photoinduced changes in aromaticity and further fast thermal back reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phillyrin, a well-known bisepoxylignan, has been shown to have many critical pharmacological activities. In this study, a novel strategy for the extensive acquisition and use of data was established based on UHPLC-Q-Exactive mass spectrometry to analyze and identify the in vivo metabolites of phillyrin and to elucidate the in vivo metabolic pathways of phillyrin. Among them, the generation of data sets was mainly due to multichannel data mining methods, such as high extracted ion chromatogram (HEIC), diagnostic product ion (DPI), and neutral loss filtering (NLF). A total of 60 metabolites (including the prototype compound) were identified in positive and negative ion modes based on intuitive and useful data such as the standard's cleavage rule, accurate molecular mass, and chromatographic retention time. The results showed that a series of biological reactions of phillyrin in vivo mainly included methylation, hydroxylation, hydrogenation, sulfonation, glucuronidation, demethylation, and dehydrogenation and their composite reactions. In summary, this study not only comprehensively explained the in vivo metabolism of phillyrin, but also proposed an effective strategy to quickly analyze and identify the metabolites of natural pharmaceutical ingredients in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of highly sensitive neutral photoacid generators (PAGs) based on photochromic terarylenes was prepared. Like the example presented herein, these compounds show a subsequent thermal elimination of a Brønsted acid after a light-triggered 6π-electrocyclization, concomitant with the hexatriene aromatization. A novel type of molecular systems was developed, in which one thiazolyl moiety was replaced by a thienyl group. Depending on the solvents and on the nature of the acid source, the quantum yield (QY) for acid generation could reach up to 0.6. Comparative studies on the acid source clearly showed that aromatic leaving groups tend to extinguish the molecular system photoefficiency. A second type was also prepared, in which the nature of the hetero-aromatic rings were identical to our previous example, but their sequence was modified. Therefore, a second level of improvement was achieved in nonpolar solvents, pushing the QY value up to 0.7. Finally, we demonstrated the mesylic acid-releasing PAG as a photocatalyst in a chemically amplified positive resist system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high reactivity of 6π-electrocyclization in polar solvents has remained one of the important challenges for diarylethenes because of the emergence of a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) state at the excited state in such polar media, which usually quenches the photocyclization reaction. Herein we report on the preparation and highly efficient photocyclization of 2,3-diarylbenzo[ b]thiophenes with nonsymmetric side-aryl units in a polar solvent. While the dithiazolylbenzo[ b]thiophene showed a suppressed quantum yield of 6π-electrocyclization of 54 % in methanol, the replacement of a thiazole unit with a thiophene ring led to a photon-quantitative 6π-cyclization reaction. The nonsymmetrical modification into the side-aryl units was considered to enhance the CH/π interactions between side-aryl units to support a photoreactive conformation in methanol. The stabilization of the photochromic reactive conformation is expected to suppress the formation of the TICT state at the excited state, leading to highly efficient photoreactivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]