Recent Advances on Polymer-Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystal: Development and Applications
摘要
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) are of great interest to researchers due to their special self-assembled helical structure and selective light reflection properties. The cholesteric phase is considered a special state of the nematic phase and is often referred to as chiral nematic liquid crystals. CLCs exhibit a spontaneous helical structure with the twist axis perpendicular to the local orientation. The CLC molecules are arranged in layers, with the long axis of the molecules parallel to the layer planes, and each plane rotates at a certain angle to its neighboring planes. Research on CLCs often requires a continuous description of chiral structures and their properties from the nanometer range to the macroscopic scale. The pointing vector of LC molecules in the layer direction returns to the initial orientation state after 360° of rotation, and this periodic layer spacing is called the pitch (p). The pitch can change with the chemical environment, temperature, electric field, etc. Due to this unique helical structure of CLCs, they exhibit special optical properties, such as selective light reflection, circular dichroism, and rotational properties, which make them widely used in various fields. The helicoidal structure of CLC can be stabilized via in situ photopolymerization of liquid crystal monomers in a CLC mixture, resulting in polymer-stabilized CLCs (PSCLCs). PSCLCs exhibit a dynamic optical response that external stimuli, including electric fields, heat, and light can induce. In this chapter, we discuss the electro-optic response of PSCLCs on film, particles, fiber, and droplets containing broadening bandwidth, red and blue tuning, switching the reflection notch, the size of PSCLC droplets, and the thermal response of PSCLC particles.