Thermoresponsive inverse opal films fabricated with liquid-crystal elastomers and nematic liquid crystals.
Liquid-crystal elastomers together with nematic liquid crystals have been used as inverse opal materials to fabricate thermoresponsive photonic crystal directly. In the vicinity of the phase-transition point of the mixture, the photonic band gaps of such inverse opal films exhibited a strong temperature dependence. As the molar ratio of liquid-crystal elastomers and nematic liquid crystals changed, the character of their PBGs also changed with increasing temperature. Such a temperature-tuning effect in the photonic band gap should be of great interest in thermal switches and thermal sensors.
Key Laboratory of Organic Photoelectronic and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China.
Guanglong
G
Wu
Yin
Y
Jiang
Dan
D
Xu
Hong
H
Tang
Xiao
X
Liang
Guangtao
G
Li
D020724:Elastomers / Q000737:chemistry*; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013696:Temperature
D020724:Elastomers