Patent ID: 8107150

Claim:
A photochromic diarylethene-containing coordination compound in which the diarylethene contains part of a mono- or poly-cyclic ring structure with one or more donor atom(s) or heteroatom(s) coordinated to a coordination unit [M], which contains an acceptor atom, M, expressed by the general formula (I): where unit B represents a mono- or poly-cyclic ring structure wherein the diarylethene moiety is a five membered ring having at least one nitrogen and that contains one or more donor atom(s) or heteroatom(s) X, n is integer from 0 to 3, [M] represents a coordination unit containing an acceptor atom M and excludes magnesium phthalocyanine, zinc phthalocyanine, metalloprophyrins and metalloazaporphrins, R 1 and R 6 individually represent an alkyl group or an alkoxy group, and R 2 to R 5 individually represent atoms or groups selected from hydrogen atom, halogen atom, hydroxyl group, alkyl group, alkoxy group, alkynyl group, cyano group, nitro group, alkylcarbonyl group, alkoxycarbonyl group, perfluoroalkyl group, aryl group, cycloalkyl group, arylcarbonyl group, aryloxycarbonyl group, mono- or dialkylaminocarbonyl group, alkylcarbonyloxy group, arylcarbonyloxy group, aryloxy group, alkoxycarbonyl group, or aryloxycarbonyloxy group.