Amplified Light-Induced p Ka Modulation with Diarylethene Photoswitches

J Org Chem. 2024 Dec 20;89(24):17991-18002. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.4c01606. Epub 2024 Nov 30.

Abstract

The reversible modulation of acidity using molecular photoswitches enables the remote control of a variety of (bio)chemical processes with light. Herein we investigated the structural features that allow amplifying photoinduced pKa variation in phenol-diarylethene conjugates, which toggle between low- and high-acidity states by switching the conjugation between the ionizable moiety and electron-withdrawing groups upon photoisomerization. By tuning the structure of these conjugates, high pKa modulation amplitudes were accomplished that surpass those previously reported.