Crystal-to-crystal solar energy storage in a hydrogen bonded dianthracene lattice retrocyclized by heat or e-beam
- 1Department of Chemistry, Yale University New Haven Connecticut 06520 USA [email protected].
Abstract
Solid-state (SS) systems for molecular solar thermal (MOST) energy storage are desirable for their simplicity and higher energy storage density compared to solution-based MOST systems, but it is difficult to design systems that achieve both high conversion to the metastable photoproduct and undergo thermally-driven release of the stored heat without melting. Anthracene (An) photocycloaddition to dianthracene (diAn) can proceed to high conversion in the solid state, but few crystalline Ans are appropriately aligned for dimerization, and even fewer diAns thermally retrocyclize without melting. By combining 9-pyridyl anthracene and 9-anthracenecarboxylic acid, we form hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) and π-stacked chains that undergo high-conversion single-crystal-to-single-crystal photocycloaddition under simulated sunlight. Disordered packing in the lattice produces a mixture of the pyridyl-carboxylate "heterodimer," the pyridyl homodimer, and the carboxylic acid homodimer. Calorimetry reveals that the H-bonded diAn product has a large separation between its thermal retrocyclization and melting temperatures, allowing the material to be cycled in the solid state. The H-bonded diAn lattice is also shown to undergo crystal-to-crystal retrocyclization under e-beam exposure. This work presents an easily-assembled all-SS crystal-to-crystal cyclable MOST system and demonstrates that H-bonding can be leveraged to increase the gap between thermal retrocyclization and melting.
Versions
Related
- Multifunctional Properties of Novel X2FeH5 Hydrides (X = Ca, Mg, Ba): A First-Principles Study of Hydrogen Storage, Electronic, Optical, and Mechanical Behavior
- Hydrogen-based materials for energy storage and conversion
- Asymmetric Zinc-Nitrate/Hydrogen Battery Chemistry Coupling Electrochemical Hydrogen Charge and Energy Storage.
- Lattice rotation field around an indentation for identifying slip system interaction coefficients in FCC Nickel single crystal
- Advances in catalytic hydrogen storage materials: progress, breakthroughs, and challenges toward scalable applications.
BibTeX
@article{schreiber2026crystaltocrystal,
title = {{Crystal-to-crystal solar energy storage in a hydrogen bonded dianthracene lattice retrocyclized by heat or e-beam}},
author = {Eric Schreiber and Hovnan Simonyan and Madison E Logelin and Aleksa K Banki and Madeleine Y Popofsky and Christopher Kim and Amymarie K Bartholomew},
journal = {Chemical science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6sc05227d},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718465},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Crystal-to-crystal solar energy storage in a hydrogen bonded dianthracene lattice retrocyclized by heat or e-beam
AU - Eric Schreiber
AU - Hovnan Simonyan
AU - Madison E Logelin
AU - Aleksa K Banki
AU - Madeleine Y Popofsky
AU - Christopher Kim
AU - Amymarie K Bartholomew
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/23
JO - Chemical science
DO - 10.1039/d6sc05227d
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718465
AB - Solid-state (SS) systems for molecular solar thermal (MOST) energy storage are desirable for their simplicity and higher energy storage density compared to solution-based MOST systems, but it is difficult to design systems that achieve both high conversion to the metastable photoproduct and undergo thermally-driven release of the stored heat without melting. Anthracene (An) photocycloaddition to dianthracene (diAn) can proceed to high conversion in the solid state, but few crystalline Ans are appropriately aligned for dimerization, and even fewer diAns thermally retrocyclize without melting. By combining 9-pyridyl anthracene and 9-anthracenecarboxylic acid, we form hydrogen-bonded (H-bonded) and π-stacked chains that undergo high-conversion single-crystal-to-single-crystal photocycloaddition under simulated sunlight. Disordered packing in the lattice produces a mixture of the pyridyl-carboxylate "heterodimer," the pyridyl homodimer, and the carboxylic acid homodimer. Calorimetry reveals that the H-bonded diAn product has a large separation between its thermal retrocyclization and melting temperatures, allowing the material to be cycled in the solid state. The H-bonded diAn lattice is also shown to undergo crystal-to-crystal retrocyclization under e-beam exposure. This work presents an easily-assembled all-SS crystal-to-crystal cyclable MOST system and demonstrates that H-bonding can be leveraged to increase the gap between thermal retrocyclization and melting.
SN - 2041-6520
SN - 2041-6539
ER -