Photochromism and thermochromism of Schiff bases in the solid state: structural aspects.

This tutorial review describes in a brief historical perspective the most important organic compounds that exhibit photochromism in the crystalline state since its discovery in 1867 up to now and considers in detail Schiff bases of salicylaldehyde with amines (anils). The latter comprise a chemical system undergoing hydrogen-atom tautomerism between enol and keto forms and show the phenomena of solid state photochromism and thermochromism. The system has been investigated extensively. Thus it has been shown that the photochromic property is a characteristic of the molecules but their chromobehaviour is influenced by the crystal structure of the compounds. Anils, apart from their fundamental interest, have potential for various applications.