Varela Domínguez, NoaLópez Bueno, CarlosLçopez Moreno, CarlosClaro, Marcel S.Rama Martínez, GustavoLeborán Álvarez, VíctorGiménez López, María del CarmenRivadulla Fernández, José Francisco2023-11-062023-11-062023-03-06J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 45882050-7526http://hdl.handle.net/10347/31159The development of systems that can be switched between states with different thermal conductivities is one of the current challenges in materials science. Despite their enormous diversity and chemical richness, molecular materials have been only scarcely explored in this regard. Here, we report a reversible, light-triggered thermal conductivity switching of ≈30–40% in mesophases of pure 4,4′-dialkyloxy-3-methylazobenzene. By doping a liquid crystal matrix with the azobenzene molecules, reversible and bidirectional switching of the thermal conductivity can be achieved by UV/Vis-light irradiation. Given the enormous variety of photoactive molecules and chemically compatible liquid crystal mesophases, this approach opens unforeseen possibilities for developing effective thermal switches based on molecular materialseng© 2023 The Authors. Published by RSC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC 3.0 Unported LicenseAtribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/journal article10.1039/d3tc00099k2050-7534open access