Radka Brian P, Lee Kyung Min, Godman Nicholas P, White Timothy J
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH 4543, USA.
Soft Matter. 2022 Apr 13;18(15):3013-3018. doi: 10.1039/d2sm00203e.
Extensive prior research has explored the stabilization of the CLC phase with polymer networks. These prior efforts have demonstrated both tunable and switchable electro-optic reconfiguration of the selective reflection of the CLC phase. Recently, we and other groups have detailed that polymer stabilization of the CLC phase with liquid crystalline monomers retains "structural" chirality (, the chiral phase templates the morphology of the achiral polymer network). Here, we demonstrate that structural chirality can be retained in aliphatic, non-liquid crystalline monomers. PSCLCs prepared by photoinitiated polymerization of aliphatic polymer networks exhibit reversible electro-optic responses. Facilitated by the retention of structural chirality in aliphatic stabilizing polymer networks, we explore the role of surface affinity and crosslink density in the transfer of structural chirality to the liquid crystal media.
此前已有大量研究探索了用聚合物网络来稳定胆甾相液晶（CLC）相。这些先前的研究已经证明了CLC相的选择性反射具有可调节和可切换的电光重构特性。最近，我们和其他团队详细阐述了用液晶单体对CLC相进行聚合物稳定化处理时会保留“结构”手性（即手性相决定了非手性聚合物网络的形态）。在此，我们证明在脂肪族非液晶单体中也可以保留结构手性。通过脂肪族聚合物网络的光引发聚合制备的聚合物稳定化胆甾相液晶（PSCLC）表现出可逆的电光响应。得益于脂肪族稳定聚合物网络中结构手性的保留，我们探究了表面亲和力和交联密度在将结构手性传递到液晶介质中的作用。
