Figure 4: Applications of photochromic carbon-based nanomaterials in solar thermal storage and memory devices.

(a) Mechanism of solar thermal fuels based on azobenzene covalently linked to CNTs. Reproduced from ref. 104 (Copyright 2011 American Chemical Society). (b) Scheme for photochemical and photochemical/thermal cycling of azobenzene covalently attached to CNTs used for solar thermal fuels. Figure 4b is drawn according to ref. 20 (Copyright 2014 Nature Publishing Group). (c) Voltage-controlled non-volatile molecular memory devices by using an azobenzene monolayer as the active layer sandwiched between two rGO electrodes via a solution process, and memory-retention performances of the ON state and the OFF state. Reproduced from ref. 108 (Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.).