Issue 41, 2016

Thermo-responsive shape and optical memories of photonic composite films enabled by glassy liquid crystalline polymer networks

Abstract

We propose a novel shape and optical memories of a photonic composite film based on a silica opal photonic crystal (PC) template and a liquid crystal polymer network (LCN). Here, the photonic composite film was fabricated by introducing a LCN precursor into a silica opal PC template, followed by UV photo-polymerization and then by the removal of the template. The obtained bilayer-structure photonic film was found to spontaneously form a three-dimensional (3D) temporary bending shape in response to heating, and thus the corresponding reflection color of the photonic composite film shows a blue shift during bending deformation. The inherent mechanisms of these two observations could be attributed to the variations of the LC molecule orientation and the light reflection in the photonic composite film during the thermal process. More intriguingly, the resulting temporary bending shape was fixed by applying mechanical force during slowly cooling down to the room temperature or autonomously fixed by a rapid cooling in liquid nitrogen. Additionally, this temporary state could restore back to the permanent flat shape when the film is cooled from the heat source without an external force. Finally, more complex 3D shape-memory samples could also be achieved by simply controlling the LC alignment or designing the sample geometry. This work opens up a new way to develop a novel shape-memory polymer photonic film.

Graphical abstract: Thermo-responsive shape and optical memories of photonic composite films enabled by glassy liquid crystalline polymer networks

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Aug 2016
Accepted
15 Sep 2016
First published
16 Sep 2016

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 8534-8541

Thermo-responsive shape and optical memories of photonic composite films enabled by glassy liquid crystalline polymer networks

W. Wei, A. Shi, T. Wu, J. Wei and J. Guo, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 8534 DOI: 10.1039/C6SM01887D

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