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The development of multistimuli-receptive actuators demands a rational combination of suitable functionalities. Achieving such actuating properties in a single crystalline material is a challenge. In spite of several investigations on photo-, thermo,- and mechano-responsive crystals, single crystalline material displaying all these effects is rare. By a judicious combination of photoreactive 2-fluoro-4′-styrylpyridine units and flexible Pb3(SCN)3 units, a multistimuli-responsive one-dimensional (1D) coordination polymer (CP) showing all these dynamic effects has been fabricated. Single crystals of the CP display rapid ballistic events upon ultraviolet (UV) irradiation triggered by 2 + 2 cycloaddition of photoreactive ligands. In addition, macroscopic jumping, bending, and splitting of the crystals were observed during both heating and cooling cycles because of reversible phase transition. Further, slender crystals of the CP exhibit elastic deformation upon the application of mechanical force. With handful of examples of CPs show macroscopic dynamic effects, this CP paves the way for designing multistimuli-responsive multisalient actuating materials.
Rath et al. (Fri,) studied this question.