Photo-induced chirality switching in a cobaloxime complex crystal

Switching of molecular chirality under photo-irradiation was studied in a cobaloxime complex crystal. Excitation of the d-d transition of the Co(III) ion appeared to be much more effective in inducing the chirality change than excitation of the ligand-metal charge transfer band although the latter is more effective in breaking the Co-C bond that initiates the chirality switching. The chirality change versus irradiation time showed a steplike behavior suggesting that chirality switching of molecules occurred in correlation with their nearest neighbors.