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Catalysis

Chemistry In Pictures

Chemistry in Pictures: Light switch

by Manny I. Fox Morone
January 3, 2025
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A cuvette filled with a photoswitchable red dithienylethene solution has a star-shaped green laser shining on it. Around the laser on the wall, the star-shaped laser separates into several more stars.
Credit: Stanislav Presolski/Hailee Shin/Yale-NUS College, Singapore

Some molecules respond to light in a matter of seconds. In the case of this dithienylethene compound, ultraviolet light triggers a ring-forming reaction, turning the colorless solution deep red. Visible light reverses that reaction and color change. Hailee Shin, a graduate student in Stanislav Presolski’s lab at Yale-NUS College, wants to use molecules such as this one as light-triggered organic catalysts to start and stop a reaction using just light.Here, Shin wanted to see how precise she could get the placement of this switch using a green laser that created a thin star design. Sure enough, when she turned the laser off, she could see a colorless star floating in the otherwise red solution, meaning that the catalyst had been deactivated.

Submitted by Stanislav Presolski/Hailee Shin/Yale-NUS College, Singapore

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Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society

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