A novel unsymmetrical photochromic diarylethene derivative, which is named 1-[2-methyl-benzofuran]-2-[2-methyl-5-(3-trifluoromethyl)-3-thienyperfluorocyclopentene, was synthesized. At the same time, its photochromic, kinetics and fluorescence properties were investigated detail. The result indicated that this compound had good thermal stability and exhibited reversible photochromism, changing the color from colorless to crimson both in hexane and PMMA film upon irradiation with 297 nm UV light, respectively. In hexane, the kinetic experiments showed that the cyclization/cycloreversion process of the compound was determined to be the zeroth/first reaction. The fluorescence intensity of diarylethene decreased dramatically along with the photochromism from open-ring isomer to closed-ring isomer upon irradiation with appropriate UV light in hexane solution. In addition, the results demonstrated that the unsymmetrical diarylethene compound, which we have synthesized, had attractive properties for potential application in optical storage.
