Understanding the properties of dithienylethenes functionalized for supramolecular self-assembly: a molecular modeling study. Issue 13 (17th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Le Bras, Laura; Berthin, Roxanne; Hamdi, Ismaïl; Louati, Maroua; Aloïse, Stéphane; Takeshita, Michinori; Adamo, Carlo; Perrier, Aurélie
• Is Part Of: Physical chemistry chemical physics. Volume 22:Issue 13(2020)
• Page Start: 6942
• Page End: 6952
• Publication Date: 2020-03-17
• Subjects: Chemistry, Physical and theoretical -- Periodicals; 541.3
• DOI: 10.1039/c9cp06590c
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9076

Abstract

Abstract : The behaviour of light-responsive supramolecular assemblies is rationalized with the help of molecular dynamics and TD-DFT calculations. Abstract : A dithienylethene (DTE) photochromic compound functionalized by ureidopyrimidinone (UPy) quadruple hydrogen bonding blocks was synthesized by Takeshita and coworkers [Takeshita et al., Chem. Commun., 2005, 761] in order to form a light-responsive supramolecular self-assembling system. In solution, the formation of supramolecular assemblies was only observed for one DTE isomer, namely the closed-form isomer. To rationalize this experimental finding, with the help of Molecular Dynamics (MD) and (time-dependent) DFT calculations, the behaviour of open-form and closed-form monomers, dimers, hexamers and π-stacked dimers in solution is investigated. Our simulations show that, for the open-form oligomers, the progression of the supramolecular assembly is hindered due to (i) the possible formation of a very stable cyclic dimer for the open-form parallel isomer, (ii) the relative flexibility of the open-form oligomers compared to their closed-form counterparts, and (iii) the possible existence of π-stacked dimers that constitute bottlenecks blocking the progression of the supramolecular self-assembly.