A super-fast colour-changing chemical has been synthesized by Jiro Abe and his colleagues at Aoyama Gakuin University in Sagamihara, Japan. The molecule is a ring system containing naphthalene groups.
When the colourless version of the molecule is zapped by ultraviolet light it changes to its green-coloured form by breaking a carbon–nitrogen bond to leave a molecule in which two electrons are left delocalized in their naphthalene rings as radicals. This change takes a fraction of a second. When the light is turned off the molecule can quickly flip back to its colourless version. This light-induced colour change can happen whether the molecule is a solid or in a solution. Photochromic materials such as this are used in light-sensitive lenses and data-storage devices.
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Chemistry: Flipping brilliant. Nature 454, 4 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454004d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454004d