Highly durable photochromic radical complexes having no steric protections of radicals.

Steric protection groups are usually necessary for stable radicals. However, here, we developed novel photochromic radical complexes which generate sterically unprotected imidazolyl and phenoxyl radicals upon UV light irradiation based on the phenoxyl-imidazolyl radical complex (PIC) framework. These photochromic compounds show excellent durability against repeated irradiation of intense nanosecond laser pulses even in polar protic solvents, such as ethanol.