Molecular photoswitches are considered to be important candidates in the field of solar energy storage due to their sensitive and reversible bidirectional optical response. Nevertheless, it is still a daunting challenge to design a molecular photoswitch to improve the low solar spectrum utilization and quantum yields while achieving charging and discharging of heat without solvent assistance. Herein, a series of visible-light-driven ethylene-bridged azobenzene (b-Azo) chromophores with different alkyne substituents which can undergo isomerization reactions promoted in both directions by visible light are reported. Their visible light responsiveness improves their solar spectrum utilization while also having high quantum yields. In addition, as the compounds are liquids, there is no need to dissolve the compounds in order to exploit this switching. The photoisomerization of b-Azo can be adjusted by alkyne-related substituents, and hexyne-substituted b-Azo is able to store and release photothermal energy with a high density of 106.1 J·g-1, and can achieve a temperature increase of 1.8 °C at a low temperature of -1 °C.
Keywords: azobenzene; photoresponse; photothermal utilization; solar energy storage; visible-light driven.