Soft mimic gear-shift with a multi-stimulus modified diarylethene

A novel gated photochromic compound Nap-Pip-DTE was prepared to mimic a soft gear-shift based on alternative UV/Vis irradiation, protonation/deprotonation and copper (II) ion complexation/dissociation. The fluorescence and absorption spectra were used as output signals. Copper ( II) ion was introduced to mimic the parking (P) state by complexation with two intramolecular piperazine moieties of Nap-Pip-DTE, transforming diarylethene moieties into the photo-inactive parallel form.