ИСТИНА

Currently a new trend is formed in nanotechnology “bottom-up”: molecular engineering of molecular devices and machines for various purposes. Light, which can easily be adjusted as regards both the wavelength and the quantity, is the most convenient means for controlling these devices. The photochromic derivatives of bisanthracenes and spiro compounds have been tested as photoantennas in molecular devices; most often, azobenzene derivatives have been used for this purpose. However, they suffer from a fundamental drawback. Azobenzene derivatives are only able to undergo the trans-cis-photoisomerization. In this respect, compounds containing a carbon–carbon double bond would have a number of advantages. We propose a new unique class of polyfunctional light-sensitive compounds: unsaturated dyes functioning as photochromes, fluorophores and ionophores. A large body of research has been performed for their synthesis, determination of their spatial structures, study of self-assembly features to give nanosized systems, and also study of fluorescent, photochemical and complexing properties. Resulting from the research, we elaborated for the first time universal molecular meccano, allowing one to accomplish building-up, with using a limited number of complementary compounds, light-sensitive and light-emissive nanosized systems of varied architecture with adjusted properties. Within the same class of compounds one can construct in solution, solid and at the air-water interface new types of photoswitchable molecular devices, photocontrolled molecular machines, photosensitive monolayers and monocrystals susceptible to all of the key photoprocesses: fluorescence, photodissociation, photoisomerization, photocycloaddition, photoelectrocyclization, excimer and charge transfer complex formation, electron and excitation transfer, and the TICT state. The high practical value of these studies deserves attention. They provide a new strategy for the design of materials for photonics, which was demonstrated by the development of previously unknown molecular switches, photoswitchable molecular devices and machines optical chemosensor materials and optical information recording and storage media. This work was supported by the Presidium and the Division of the RAS, the Ministry of Science and Education, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Moscow Government, the International Science Foundation (ISF), the INTAS, the CRDF Foundation, the DFG, and the Royal Society.