Norbornadiene-Based Photoswitches with Exceptional Combination of Solar Spectrum Match and Long-Term Energy Storage

• Norbornadiene-quadricyclane (NBD-QC) photoswitches are candidates for applications in solar thermal energy storage. Functionally, they rely on an intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, which couples the S0 landscape on the NBD side to the S1 landscape on the QC side of the reaction and vice-versa. This commonly results in an unfavourable correlation between the first absorption maximum and the barrier for thermal back-conversion. This work demonstrates that this correlation can be counteracted by using steric repulsion to hamper the rotational motion of the side groups along the back-conversion path. It is shown that this modification reduces the correlation between the effective back-conversion barrier and the first absorption maximum and also increases the back-conversion entropy. The resulting molecules exhibit exceptionally long half-lives for their metastable forms without significantly affecting other properties, most notably solar spectrum match and storage density.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Atom- och molekylfysik och optik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Teoretisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Theoretical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

solar energy

quadricyclane

norbornadienes

energy storage

molecular photoswitches

energy storage; molecular photoswitches; norbornadienes; quadricyclane; solar energy

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art (ämneskategori)

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