Construction of Photoresponsive 3D Structures Based on Triphenylethylene Photochromic Building Blocks

Abstract

Photoresponsive materials have been widely used in sensing, bioimaging, molecular switches, information storage, and encryption nowadays. Although a large amount of photoresponsive materials have been reported, the construction of these smart materials into precisely prescribed complex 3D geometries is rarely studied. Here we designed a novel photoresponsive material methyl methacrylate containing triphenylethylene (TrPEF 2 -MA) that can be directly used for digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing. Based on TrPEF 2 -MA, a series of photoresponsive 3D structures with reversible color switching under ultraviolet/visible light irradiations were fabricated. These complex photoresponsive 3D structures show high resolutions (50  μ m), excellent repeatability (25 cycles without fatigue), and tunable saturate color degrees. Multicomponent DLP 3D printing processes were also carried out to demonstrate their great properties in information hiding and information-carrying properties. This design strategy for constructing photoresponsive 3D structures is attractive in the area of adaptive camouflage, information hiding, information storage, and flexible electronics.