Recent progress of photochromic materials towards photocontrollable devices

Abstract

Purely organic photochromic materials, which can undergo photo-induced reversible switching between two isomers, have received enormous attention in the last decade, due to their distinct features of high photosensitivity, excellent fatigue-resistance, etc. The improvement of existing photochromic materials and exploration of new molecular systems have largely extended their applications to energy-conserving coatings, ophthalmics, and optical memory devices and switches. Inspired by their success, this review summarizes the recent developments in the area of photochromic material-based photocontrollable devices, with an emphasis on organic field-effect transistors, molecular switches and resistive random-access memories, as well as the discussion of the relationship between molecular architectures and device performances. Finally, a perspective on the development trend of photocontrollable devices as well as the key challenges is proposed.