Naphthalene diimide-based crystalline hybrid photochromic materials: Structural types, photochromic mechanism, and applications

The multifunctional stimuli-responsive photochromic materials significantly expand their application fields, including molecular switching, information storage and encryption, detection and sensing, etc. 1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimides (NDIs) have been widely used for the construction photochromic material because of their excellent modification and high redox activity. Due to single organic NDIs materials exhibit poor fatigue resistance and relatively simple functions, the increasing interest in this field focuses on constructing multifunctional crystalline hybrid photochromic materials and exploring applications based on the electron-deficient features of NDIs. Nevertheless, the development of multifunctional naphthalene diimide-based crystalline hybrid photochromic materials (NCHPMs) remains a significant challenge. This paper summarizes structure design strategies of NCHPMs with different NDIs ligands, the photochromic mechanism, application, and future prospects. This article will provide a valuable reference for researchers studying NCHPMs.