Tuning the competition between photoisomerization and photothermy in biomimetic cyclocurcumin analogues

•Oxo and malonitrile derivatives inspired from cyclocurcumin, a natural photoswitch were designed to be potentially used in light activated chemotherapy (LAC).•Oxo derivatives efficiently and reversible photoisomerize, solely under irradiation.•No thermal switching in the dark was observed for the oxo derivatives.•The presence of CN groups prevents ethylenic double bond isomerization.•Photoactivated rotation of CN groups induce hyperthermia.