A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Tailoring Photochromism Beyond Human Eye Visibility: On/Off Switchable NIR Absorption in an Aluminosilicate; 
Authors: Muurinen, Bettiina; Byron, Hannah; Kreivilä, Teppo; Vastamäki, Roosa; Vuori, Sami; Galica, Tomasz; Machado, Ian P.; Granroth, Sari; Ali, Basit; Karppinen, Maarit; Heinmaa, Ivo; Todorović, Milica; Rullan, Rapahel; Steinmann, Stephan; Le Bahers, Tangui; Lastusaari, Mika
Publisher: Wiley
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Article number: e6747535
ISSN: 1433-7851
eISSN: 1521-3773
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.6747535
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Partially Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.6747535
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/526824663
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Photochromic materials are able to change reversibly between two colors. The color change is triggered by ultraviolet radiation and reversed by white light and/or heating. Inorganic photochromes have been thought to operate with fixed wavelengths only, and because of this, their usage has been considered less convenient than that of their organic counterparts, even if the inorganic ones would show a much higher durability in applications. High-tunability within the whole visible wavelength range was recently demonstrated by some of us for hackmanites, a family of inorganic aluminosilicates. Here, we demonstrate that a davyne-type structure constitutes the first photochromic material exhibiting absorption exclusively in the near-infrared region, without accompanying visible color changes, thereby enabling fully invisible photochromism beyond human perception. Furthermore, we show that the invisible photochromic changes can be detected with a simple camera setup. This is the first material that exhibits invisible near-infrared reversible photochromism, and we discuss its potential for tagging applications.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work was supported by Business Finland (project 6608/31/2021), the Research Council of Finland (Profi 7 – Strengthening the Profiling of Universities, decision number 352727 – Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing, SUSMAT), and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture (PREIN/I-DEEP doctoral pilot, VN/3137/2024-OKM-4). This support is gratefully acknowledged. We also acknowledge the CBPsmn (PSMN, Pôle Scientifique de Modélisation Numérique) at ENS de Lyon for providing computing resources. The platform operates the SIDUS solution [41]. We further acknowledge the Materials Research Infrastructure (MARI) at the University of Turku is acknowledged for access to and support with the XPS facilities.
Open access publishing facilitated by Turun yliopisto, as part of the Wiley - FinELib agreement.
