BT-2-BOX: an assembly toward multi-modal and multi-level molecular system simple as a breeze

TThe design of multistate/multifunctional molecular systems continues to arouse a lot of interest. Such compounds are able to commutate reversibly between two metastable states by application of an external stimulation such as light, heat, proton or electron. In this context, we are interested in molecular switches based on indolino-oxazolidine (BOX) which is a relatively confidential sub-class of multi-modal addressable units. Their particularity consists on the possi-bility to induce the opening/closing of the oxazolidine ring by using indifferently light, electrochemical or acido-basic stimulation. Up to now, most of the reported systems based on BOX have allowed to modulate a molecular property but only between two discrete levels which can be only extend-ed by their association with other classical switchable unit such as example a dithienylethene unit. For this reason, we report here our effort to enhance the number of metastable states by simply connecting two identical BOX units by a bithiophene (...