Cholesteric liquid crystals（CLCs） have recently sparked an enormous amount of interest in the development of soft matter materials due to their unique ability to self-organize into a helical supra-molecular architec...Cholesteric liquid crystals（CLCs） have recently sparked an enormous amount of interest in the development of soft matter materials due to their unique ability to self-organize into a helical supra-molecular architecture and their excellent selective reflection of light based on the Bragg relationship.Nowadays,by the virtue of building the self-organized nanostructures with pitch gradient or non-uniform pitch distribution,extensive work has already been performed to obtain CLC films with a broad reflection band.Based on authors＇ many years＇ research experience,this critical review systematically summarizes the physical and optical background of the CLCs with broadband reflection characteristics,methods to obtain broadband reflection of CLCs,as well as the application in the field of intelligent optical modulation materials.Combined with the research status and the advantages in the field,the important basic and applied scientific problems in the research direction are also introduced.展开更多
Intelligent responsive devices are crucial for a variety of applications ranging from smart electronics to robotics.Electro-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLC)have been widely applied in display panels,smart w...Intelligent responsive devices are crucial for a variety of applications ranging from smart electronics to robotics.Electro-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLC)have been widely applied in display panels,smart windows,and so on.In this work,we realize the mechanical stimuli-triggered optical responses of the CLC by integrating it with a triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG),which converts the mechanical motion into alternating current electricity and then tunes the different optical responses of the CLC.When the voltage applied on the CLC is relatively low(15–40 V),the TENG drives the switching between the bistable planar state and focal conic state of the CLC,which shows potential applications in selfpowered smart windows or E-paper displays.When the voltage supplied by the TENG is larger than60 V,a self-powered optical switch is demonstrated by utilizing the transformation between focal conic state and instantons homeotropic state of the CLC.This triboelectric-optical responsive device consumes no extra electric power and suggests a great potential for future smart electronics.展开更多
Photo-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLCs)have attracted much attention in recent years due to their wide applications in filters,tun able optical lasers,dyn amic display devices,etc.However,UV light is usuall...Photo-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLCs)have attracted much attention in recent years due to their wide applications in filters,tun able optical lasers,dyn amic display devices,etc.However,UV light is usually used as the exter nal stimulus source,which is not envir on ment-frie ndly enough.On the other hand,the mecha nical properties of CLCs are not strong eno ugh for these practical applications.Therefore,it still remains a challenge to endow the CLCs with visible light response and high mechanical properties at the same time.Herein,an axially chiral tetra-fluorinated binaphthyl azobenzene gelator(S-4F-AG)is synthesized.Upon 550 and 450 nm light irradiations,S-4F-AG exhibits excellent photo-switchable behaviors.Notably,the maximum con tent of c/s-isomer and its half-life are as high as 35%and 89 h in acet on itrile,respectively.A self-supporting CLC physical gel with a storage modulus around 104 Pa can be obtained when 3wt%S-4F-AG and 12wt%binaphthyl azobenzene derivative(dopant 2)are co-doped into a nematic LC host P0616A.This CLC physical gel exhibits a temperature-driven blue,green,and red reflection colors reversibly.Importantly,such three primary RGB colors can also be realized by adjusting the exposure time of 550 nm green light.This work lays a solid foundation for the applications ranging from information storage to high-tech anticounterfeit.展开更多
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.51573006,51573003,51203003,51303008,51302006,51402006,51272026,and 51273022)the Major Project of Beijing Science and Technology Program,China(Grant Nos.Z151100003315023 and Z141100003814011)the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation,China(Grant No.142009)
文摘Cholesteric liquid crystals（CLCs） have recently sparked an enormous amount of interest in the development of soft matter materials due to their unique ability to self-organize into a helical supra-molecular architecture and their excellent selective reflection of light based on the Bragg relationship.Nowadays,by the virtue of building the self-organized nanostructures with pitch gradient or non-uniform pitch distribution,extensive work has already been performed to obtain CLC films with a broad reflection band.Based on authors＇ many years＇ research experience,this critical review systematically summarizes the physical and optical background of the CLCs with broadband reflection characteristics,methods to obtain broadband reflection of CLCs,as well as the application in the field of intelligent optical modulation materials.Combined with the research status and the advantages in the field,the important basic and applied scientific problems in the research direction are also introduced.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2016YFA0202702)the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS。
文摘Intelligent responsive devices are crucial for a variety of applications ranging from smart electronics to robotics.Electro-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLC)have been widely applied in display panels,smart windows,and so on.In this work,we realize the mechanical stimuli-triggered optical responses of the CLC by integrating it with a triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG),which converts the mechanical motion into alternating current electricity and then tunes the different optical responses of the CLC.When the voltage applied on the CLC is relatively low(15–40 V),the TENG drives the switching between the bistable planar state and focal conic state of the CLC,which shows potential applications in selfpowered smart windows or E-paper displays.When the voltage supplied by the TENG is larger than60 V,a self-powered optical switch is demonstrated by utilizing the transformation between focal conic state and instantons homeotropic state of the CLC.This triboelectric-optical responsive device consumes no extra electric power and suggests a great potential for future smart electronics.
文摘Photo-responsive cholesteric liquid crystals(CLCs)have attracted much attention in recent years due to their wide applications in filters,tun able optical lasers,dyn amic display devices,etc.However,UV light is usually used as the exter nal stimulus source,which is not envir on ment-frie ndly enough.On the other hand,the mecha nical properties of CLCs are not strong eno ugh for these practical applications.Therefore,it still remains a challenge to endow the CLCs with visible light response and high mechanical properties at the same time.Herein,an axially chiral tetra-fluorinated binaphthyl azobenzene gelator(S-4F-AG)is synthesized.Upon 550 and 450 nm light irradiations,S-4F-AG exhibits excellent photo-switchable behaviors.Notably,the maximum con tent of c/s-isomer and its half-life are as high as 35%and 89 h in acet on itrile,respectively.A self-supporting CLC physical gel with a storage modulus around 104 Pa can be obtained when 3wt%S-4F-AG and 12wt%binaphthyl azobenzene derivative(dopant 2)are co-doped into a nematic LC host P0616A.This CLC physical gel exhibits a temperature-driven blue,green,and red reflection colors reversibly.Importantly,such three primary RGB colors can also be realized by adjusting the exposure time of 550 nm green light.This work lays a solid foundation for the applications ranging from information storage to high-tech anticounterfeit.
