Norbornadiene-based photoswitches with exceptional combination of solar spectrum match and long term energy storage

Norbornadiene-quadricyclane (NBD-QC) photo-switches are candidates for applications in solar thermal energy storage. Functionally they rely on an intramolecular [2+2] cycloaddition reaction, which couples the S₀ landscape on the NBD side to the S₁ landscape on the QC side of the reaction and vice-versa. This commonly results in an unfavourable correlation between the first absorption maximum and the barrier for thermal back-conversion. Here, we demonstrate that this correlation can be counteracted by using steric repulsion to hamper the rotational motion of the side groups along the back-conversion path. It is shown that this modification reduces the correlation between the effective back-conversion barrier and the first absorption maximum and gives rise to a large conversion entropy. The resulting molecules exhibit exceptionally long half-lives for their metastable forms without significantly affecting other properties, most notably solar spectrum match and storage density.