Elastic organic single crystals with light-emitting and multi-faceted bending properties are extremely rare. They have potential application in optical materials and have attracted the extensive attention of researchers. In this paper, we reported a structurally simple barbituric derivative DBDT, which was easily crystallized and gained long needle-like crystals (centimeter-scale) in DCM/CH 3 OH (v/v = 2/8). Upon applying or removing the mechanical force, both the ( 100) and ( 040) faces of the needle-like crystal showed reversible bending behaviour, showing the nature of multi-faceted bending. The average hardness (H) and elastic modulus (E) were 0.28 � 0.01 GPa and 4.56 � 0.03 GPa for the (040) plane, respectively. Through the analysis of the single crystal data, it could be seen that the van der waals (CÀ H•••π and CÀ H•••C), Hbond (CÀ H•••O) and π•••π interactions between molecules were responsible for the generation of the crystal elasticity.Interestingly, elastic crystals exhibited optical waveguide characteristics in straight or bent state. The optical loss coefficients measured at 627 nm were 0.7 dBmm À 1 (straight state) and 0.9 dBmm À 1 (bent state), while the optical loss coefficient (α) were 1.5 dBmm À 1 (straight state) and 1.8 dBmm À 1 (bent state) at 567 nm. Notably, the elastic organic molecular crystal based on barbituric derivative could be used as the candidate for flexible optical devices.
Organic
single crystal/polymer hybrid actuators that can be applied
in extreme conditions such as polar regions and space are extremely
important and rare. Herein, we report an extremely simple but efficient
strategy to fabricate hybrid organic crystalline materials with low-temperature,
humidity actuation, and waveguide properties. First, needle-like crystals
composed of 10-(trifluoromethyl)anthracene-9-carbonitrile (TFMAC) exhibited excellent elastic properties in the temperature range
of 77–423 K. Second, we prepared a crystal/polymer hybrid by
coating a layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer on the crystal
surface. Fortunately, the flexible hybrids had wet and low-temperature
actuation properties. The mechanical claws made of hybrids could transport
objects at low temperature, showing excellent actuation behavior.
Meanwhile, organic crystals and hybrids exhibited excellent optical
waveguide properties, with optical loss coefficients as low as 0.29–0.45
dB mm–1 before and after bending. This article has
opened up new ideas for the design and fabrication of temperature-sensitive
flexible composite functional waveguide materials.
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