Two light‐driven chiral fluorescent molecular switches, (R,S,R)‐switch 1 and (R,S,R)‐switch 2, are prepared by means of hydrogen‐bonded (H‐bonded) assembly of a photoresponsive (S) chiral fluorescent molecule, respectively with a cyano substitution at different positions as an H‐bond acceptor and an opposite (R) chiral molecule as an H‐bond donor. The resulting two switches exhibit tunable and reversible Z/E photoisomerization irradiated with 450 nm blue and 365 nm UV light. When doped into an achiral liquid crystal, both switches are found to be able to form a CPL tunable luminescent helical superstructure. In contrast to the tunable CPL characteristics of the system incorporating switch 2, exposure of the system incorporating switch 1 to 365 nm and 450 nm radiation can lead to controllable different photostationary CPL behavior, including switching‐off and polarization inversion. In addition, optical information coding is demonstrated using the system containing switch 1.
NotesViews expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS. J.M.K. is a paid consultant and or equity holder for multiple biotechnology companies (see https://www.karplab.net/team/ jeff-karp) and holds multiple patents on drug delivery. The interests of J.M.K. were reviewed and are subject to a management plan overseen by his institutions in accordance with its conflict of interest policies. N.J. holds multiple patents on drug delivery and is an equity holder and a paid consultant for a biotech company (Akita Biosciences). R.L. is a paid consultant and or equity holder for multiple biotechnology companies (see www.dropbox.com/s/yc3xqb5s8s94v7x/ Rev%20Langer%20COI.pdf?dl=0) and holds multiple patents on drug delivery.
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors appreciate the assistance from Ziting (Judy) Xia in drawing the figure. The figure was created with BioRender.
Advanced encryption/decryption strategies are of great significance for information protection and data security. It is highly desirable yet quite challenging to develop functional materials for encrypting/decrypting information more effectively. Herein, a novel emissive liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) for multidimensional and multistage encryption is proposed for the first time, through synergistic utilization of phototunable fluorescence and the photoprogrammable shape. The fluorescent LCE is fabricated by incorporating an aggregation-induced-emission α-cyanodiarylethene-based hydrogen-bonded complex and azobenzene derivative into the LCE networks through covalent bonding. Because of the photoisomerization of both these two photosensitive derivatives under the same exciting light, the consequent LCE films exhibit photoinduced reversible fluorescence changes and shape deformations that are suitable for data storage and encryption. On this basis, the collaborative usage of photolithography-based 2D fluorescent images and photoprogramming 3D shape configurations can lead to multidimensional and multistage encryption. Moreover, this encryption strategy is reprogrammable, allowing for repeatable encoding and decrypting. The results demonstrated here reveal that the reversible phototunable fluorescent LCE materials exhibit promising applications in data storage and encryption.
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