eng Science and Education Publishing World Journal of Chemical Education 2375-1657 2021-11-28 9 4 96 103 10.12691/wjce-9-4-1 WJCE2021941 article Nico Meuter 1 Sebastian Spinnen 1 Michael W. Tausch mtausch@uni-wuppertal.de 1 Didaktik der Chemie, Bergische Universit?t Wuppertal, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany This mini review presents a series of experiments in which light acts on two general phenomena: isomerization reactions and photoluminescence. The experiments described using the reversible photoactive molecular switch spiropyrane/merocyanine, is suited to teach fundamental concepts of photochemistry as well as to introduce innovative applications related to smart materials, molecular motors and logic gates. http://pubs.sciepub.com/wjce/9/4/1/wjce-9-4-1.pdf molecular switch photochromism solvatochromism AIE (aggregation induced emission) molecular logic gates super resolution microscopy