Fascinating Pathway to Facilitate the Photoisomerization of Spiropyran-Based Nanocomposites

Recently, spiropyran-based composites have gained moreattentionon account of their stimuli-responsive essence, especially of thefascinating and green photo stimulus. However, the great dipole momentchange between the ring-opened merocyanine and ring-closed spiropyranrequires a large free volume available for isomerization, which significantlyrestrains the photoisomerization of spiropyran-based nanocomposites.Herein, a fascinating pathway by regulating the states both of spiropyranand the immobilized nanoparticle supports was put forward to facilitatethe photoisomerization. The results demonstrated that the spiropyrangrafting percentage of 5.18% and immobilized supports with less aggregation,high specific surface area, large pore size, and noncrystalline structurewere suitable to fabricate spiropyran-based nanocomposites, whichshowed a significant improvement for Pb2+ and Cr3+ removal from aqueous solution on account of free photoisomerizationof spiropyran on the support's surface. This work will pavethe pathway to extend the exploitation of spiropyran-based nanocompositesin various fields such as biotechnology, physiology, and electronicsto photonics and environmental-friendly fields.