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Photo-Isomerizable Complementary Hydrogen Bond Arrays, Jeffrey S. Pleizier

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The use of light as an external stimulus provides a non-invasive technique to induce large changes in physical and chemical properties of a substrate. The incorporation of a photochromic subunit into supramolecular polymeric systems therefore adds a potential "smart" quality for polymer manipulation. The azo moiety (-N=N-) is one of the most popular photochromic units as the trans to cis isomerization results in a large degree of spatial rearrangement. This present thesis exploits the azo group by its incorporation into complementary hydrogen bonded complexes. Hydrogen bonding acceptor groups attached to the periphery of the central azo photoswitch provided strong complexation …