Bala Indu, Plank Joshua T, Balamut Brandon, Henry Drake, Lippert Alexander R, Aprahamian Ivan
Department of Chemistry, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
Department of Chemistry, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA.
Nat Chem. 2024 Dec;16(12):2084-2090. doi: 10.1038/s41557-024-01648-0. Epub 2024 Oct 4.
The photomodulation of the helical pitch of cholesteric liquid crystals results in dynamic and coloured canvases that can potentially be used in applications ranging from energy-efficient displays to colour filters, anti-counterfeiting tags and liquid crystal (LC) lasers. Here we report on the analysis of a series of photoswitchable chiral dopants that combine the large geometrical change and bistability of hydrazone switches with the efficient helical pitch induction of the chiral motif, triptycene. We elucidate the effects that conformational flexibility, dispersion forces and π-π interactions have on the chirality transfer ability of the dopant. We then use the irradiation time with visible light (442 nm) combined with a simple digital light processing microscope projection set-up to draw numerous stable multi-coloured images on an LC canvas, showcasing the fine control this dopant yields over the LC assembly.
胆甾相液晶螺旋间距的光调制可产生动态彩色画布，其潜在应用范围涵盖从节能显示器到彩色滤光片、防伪标签及液晶（LC）激光器等领域。在此，我们报告了一系列光开关手性掺杂剂的分析情况，这些掺杂剂将腙开关的大几何变化和双稳性与手性基序三蝶烯的高效螺旋间距诱导相结合。我们阐明了构象灵活性、色散力和π-π相互作用对掺杂剂手性转移能力的影响。然后，我们利用可见光（442 nm）的照射时间，结合简单的数字光处理显微镜投影装置，在液晶画布上绘制出众多稳定的多色图像，展示了这种掺杂剂对液晶组装体的精细控制。
