ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Investigating the structural impact of sensitisers on red-light addressable photosurfactant assemblies.

Abstract: Photosurfactants (PS) are amphiphiles whose properties can be reversibly modified through the application of light. These materials will find diverse applications in microfluidics, controlled delivery and release, and solar thermal energy storage, where the light-addressability allows for precision control with high temporal and spatial selectivity. Photoisomerisation changes both the molecular shape and dipole moment, leading to dramatic differences in the surface activity and self-assembly of each photoisomer. Conventional PS exploit the E-Z photoisomerisation of an azobenzene chromophore embedded within the amphiphile structure. We have recently reported an alternative design to cationic PS systems, based on the arylazopyrazole (AAP) photoswitch, and shown them to have highly promising behaviour. We have incorporated sensitisers into micelles assembled from AAP PS. The addition of a sensitiser to the self-assembled structures is expected to impact the micellar and liquid crystalline structures of both the E and Z-isomer assemblies and the dynamics between their interconversion. Whilst we can characterise the changes that occur at the molecular level upon photoisomerisation, either directly or via sensitisation, many questions remain as to how this will affect the self-assembly of the AAP PS. This work proposes to use small-angle neutron scattering to probe the effect of sensitiser addition on the self-assembly of AAP PS at the micellar and lyotropic liquid crystal level.

Principal Investigator: Professor Matthew Fuchter
Local Contact: Dr Najet Mahmoudi
Experimenter: Ms Gaia van den Bergh Ferrer
Experimenter: Dr Beatrice Jones
Experimenter: Professor Rachel Evans

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610617

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2610617

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Matthew Fuchter et al; (2026): Investigating the structural impact of sensitisers on red-light addressable photosurfactant assemblies., STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610617

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.