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Structure-Nanomechanical Property Correlation in Photosalient Isostructural Metal-Organic Crystals
Basudeb Dutta1,2, Amit Mondal3, Raghavender Medishetty4
1Department of Chemistry, Aliah University, New Town, Kolkata 700 160, India.
Abstract:
Dynamic photoactuating crystals are making waves for their ability to transform industries, offering groundbreaking possibilities in fields such as medical technology, robotics, and flexible electronics. These crystals respond to light, enabling innovations such as smart devices, artificial muscles, molecular machines, sensors, and microrobots, heralding a new era of highly adaptive and efficient technologies. Herein, we report two iso-structural metal-organic crystals [Cd(quin)2(4-nvp)2] and [Zn(quin)2(4-nvp)2] [Hquin = quinoline-2-carboxylic acid and 4-nvp = 4-(1-naphthylvinyl)pyridine] based on Cd(II) and Zn(II) ions respectively, that undergo solid-state photochemical [2 + 2] cycloaddition reaction accompanied by photosalient (PS) effect, wherein both the crystals show popping, swelling, and splitting upon UV irradiation, explicitly probed by nanoindentation studies. Thus, these findings may pave the way for the fabrication of photoactuating smart materials.
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