Improving the kinetics and dark equilibrium of donor-acceptor Stenhouse adduct by triene backbone design Peterson, Julie A. Stricker, Friedrich J Read de Alaniz, Javier ddc:540 DFT calculations were used to find an optimal substitution site on the triene backbone of a donor–acceptor Stenhouse adduct photoswitch to tune the equillibrium and switching kinetics of DASA without modifying the donor and acceptor groups. Using this approach we demonstrate a new means to tuning DASA based photoswitches by increasing the energy of the closed form relative to the open form. To highlight the potential of this approach a new DASA derivative bearing a methyl substituent on the 5-position of the triene was synthesized and the effect of this substitution was studied using 1H NMR spectroscopy, time-dependent UV-Vis and solvatochromic analysis. The new DASA derivative shows a higher dark equillibrium, favoring the open form, and drastically faster thermal recovery than the unsubstituted derivative with the same donor and acceptor. Royal Society of Chemistry 2022 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/21823 Peterson JA, Stricker FJ, Read de Alaniz J. Improving the kinetics and dark equilibrium of donor-acceptor Stenhouse adduct by triene backbone design. <i>Chemical Communications</i>. 2022;58(14):2303-2306. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d1cc06235b">10.1039/d1cc06235b</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1039/d1cc06235b info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1359-7345 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/e-issn/1364-548X info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/35075464 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess