Photoswitchable coordination compounds

Photoswitchable compounds represent an attractive class of materials in coordination chemistry. Recent progress dealing with transition metal compounds involving photo-induced changes of the magnetic and/or optical properties to long-lived metastable states are covered in the present review article. The basic photophysical phenomena together with representative examples such as nitroprusside derivatives, relevant spin crossover complexes, stilbenoid complexes and finally Prussian blue analogues are discussed. Some possible applications regarding energy and information storage are suggested at the end. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.