Photochromism of a spiropyran in the presence of a dendritic fibrous nanosilica; simultaneous photochemical reaction and adsorption

Abstract

The photoinduced adsorption of a photochromic spiropyran (1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3,3-dimethylindolino-6′-nitrobenzopyrylospiran) onto a dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) was investigated. By UV irradiation, the colorless suspension containing the spiropyran and DFNS changed to blue without stirring, while it turned to red by the irradiation under stirring. These two colors were attributed to the photogenerated merocyanine in a non polar environment (in toluene, blue) and on a protic environment (on DFNS, red). The long lifetime of the adsorbed merocyanine on DFNS (red) and the easy separation of DFNS from the suspension made it possible to follow the kinetics of the photoinduced adsorption as a pseudo-first order reaction with the rate constant of 0.0279 s^–1. The rate limiting process was suggested to be the adsorption of the merocyanine onto DFNS.