FRET-Mediated Photoswitchable Catalytic Metallacage with Tunable Activity for Organic Dye Degradation

Photoswitchable catalysts provide a versatile strategy for controlling catalytic activities through light stimuli, presenting significant potential for the precise regulation of synthetic transformations. Herein, we successfully synthesized a novel photoswitchable catalytic metallacage <b>MC</b> from meso-tetra-(2-pyridyl)-porphines (<b>TPP</b>) and Pt(II)-bisthienylethene (<b>DTE-1</b>) via coordination-driven self-assembly. The Pt(II)-bisthienylethene ligand within the metallacage exhibits a reversible conversion between its ring-opened and ring-closed isomers upon alternating UV and visible radiation, facilitating photoswitchable Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) in <b>MC</b> systems. Notably, the two forms of the metallacage exhibit switchable performance between highly and poorly catalytical activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B. This work not only develops a novel metallacage-based photoswitchable FRET system but also provides a new avenue for constructing artificial photoregulated enzymes.