We demonstrated photoswitchable nanofibers (SEM pictures in Fig. 1) exhibiting bright luminescence in their on-form, and well-behaved fluorescence and absorption on-off photocontrolled cycling driven by spiropyran/merocyanine reversible transformations. The preservation of the emission properties and of photoisomerization of photochromic molecules embedded in nanofibers opens the way to the realization of light-driven, nanoscale functional devices. These nanofibers also show unique potentialities for achieving enhanced control of surface wettability.

 

 

The nanofibers, exposed to UV light for several intervals (total irradiation time between 0 to 3 minutes), show an increasing absorbance around 610 nm, which is clearly attributable to the isomeric transformation of the employed photochromic dopant (Fig. 2). Afterwards, the nanofibers can be back-converted in their initial state by irradiation with green light.

 

 

For more information, please contact: Dr. Dario Pisignano ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )


Publications:

[1] F. Di Benedetto, E. Mele, A. Camposeo, A. Athanassiou, R. Cingolani, D. Pisignano
Adv. Mater., 10.1002/adma.200700980, in press (2007).