Control Over Topochemical Photopolymerization and Photoisomerization in Azobenzene Tethered Chiral Diacetylenes Toward Tunable Molecular Packing and Conductivity (Small 35/2025)

Chiral Optoelectronics Topochemical polymerization in self-assembled asymmetric azobenzene tethered diacetylenes generates ordered π-conjugated polydiacetylene nanofibers furnishing bright birefringent patterns. UV-light mediated E-Z photoisomerization of azobenzene leads to a dynamic order-disorder transition in the polymer with the nanofibers disassembling into nanoparticles. Such transition renders control over conductivity with E-isomer exhibiting ∼3-fold higher values than the corresponding Z analogs in solution-processed thin films. More in article number 2504051, Asish Pal and co-workers.