Design and synthesis of Λ-shaped photoswitchable compounds employing Tröger's Base scaffold

The production of azo derivatives of a di-amino analogue of Tröger's base (Hünlich base), by employing the standard procedures of diazotization, azo-coupling and Williamson etherification is described here. These versatile molecules possess a Λ-shaped core, photoswitchable groups and some carry two modifiable extremities to enable further synthesis or molecular assembly. The synthesis is straightforward and requires inexpensive starting materials, which facilitates their application to different fields of research such as light-driven molecular machine design.