Cyclic kinetics during thermal equilibration of an axially chiral bis-spiropyran

A compound combining the features of a molecular rotor and a photoswitch was synthesized and was shown to exist as three diastereomers, which interconvert via a reversible cyclic reaction scheme. Each of the three diastereomers was isolated, and by following the equilibration kinetics, activation barriers for all reactions were calculated. The results indicate that the properties of molecular switches depend heavily on their immediate chemical environment. The conclusions are important in the context of designing new switchable molecules and materials.