Recent advance of photochromic diarylethenes-containing supramolecular systems

Photochromic diarylethenes were deemed to be one of the most promising molecular building blocks for photoresponsive materials. This review gives a brief summary to the recent progress of studies of diarylethenes in supramolecular systems, focusing on their applications in biological systems, photoresponsive mechanical materials and photoresponsive chemosensors.