Bioinspired conductive cellulose liquid-crystal hydrogels as multifunctional electrical skins

Zhang, Zhuohao; Chen, Zhuoyue; Wang, Yu; Zhao, Yuanjin

doi:10.1073/pnas.2007032117

Cited by 187 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Among the functional materials, liquid crystals (LCs), which possess both liquid fluidity and crystalline ordering, have shown great potential for the development of biomimetic systems. [ 19–25 ] For example, cholesteric LCs (CLCs) spontaneously have a periodic helical structure with the orientation of molecular director processing along the helical axis. Structural color appears when the helical pitch of CLCs is comparable to the wavelength of visible light due to selective Bragg reflection.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

3D‐Printed Biomimetic Systems with Synergetic Color and Shape Responses Based on Oblate Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets

Yang

Ruan

et al. 2021

Advanced Materials

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Living organisms in nature have amazing control over their color, shape, and morphology in response to environmental stimuli for camouflage, communication, or reproduction. Inspired by the camouflage of the octopus via the elongation or contraction of its pigment cells, oblate cholesteric liquid crystal droplets are dispersed in a polymer matrix, serving as the role of pigment cells and showing structural color due to selective Bragg reflection by their periodic helical structure. The color of 3D‐printed biomimetic systems can be tuned by changing the helical pitch via the chiral dopant concentration or temperature. When the oblate liquid crystal droplets are heated up to isotropic, the opaque and colored biomimetic systems become transparent and colorless. Meanwhile, the isotropic liquid crystal droplets tend to become spherical, causing volume contraction along the film plane and volume dilation in the perpendicular direction. The internal strain combined with the gradient distribution of the oblate isotropic liquid crystal droplets result in corresponding shape transformations. The camouflage of a biomimetic octopus and the blossom of a biomimetic flower, both of which show synergetic color and shape responses, are demonstrated to inspire the design of functional materials and intelligent devices.

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Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

3D‐Printed Biomimetic Systems with Synergetic Color and Shape Responses Based on Oblate Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets

Yang

Ruan

et al. 2021

Advanced Materials

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“…Adapted with permission. [ 74 ] Copyright 2020, National Academy of Sciences. k) Fiber with lamellar structure fabricated by spin coating polymer layers and rolling up the resulting film (scale bar 20 µm).…”

Section: Structures and Physical Principlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanochromism in Structurally Colored Polymeric Materials

Clough

Weder

Schrettl

2020

Macromol. Rapid Commun.

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of color in these materials has fascinated scientists for centuries, with early breakthroughs in understanding these phenomena made by Hooke, Newton [6] and Lord Rayleigh. [7] Another type of structural color arises from surface plasmon resonance, i.e., the resonant coupling between light and metallic nanostructures, which craftspeople have used since the Bronze age to impart color to ceramics and glass. [8,9] Over the past 30 years, fabricating structurally colored materials has been greatly facilitated by the rapid development of lithography-based technologies and directed self-assembly methodologies, which permit precise control of structural ordering at the nano-and microscale. Photonic and plasmonic materials can now be used to control and manipulate the flow of light in a plethora of colorful applications in the modern world, ranging from microoptical components [10] and lasing materials [11,12] to household products, such as nontoxic and photostable pigments for paints and cosmetics. [13-15] Artificial, structurally colored materials have been made predominantly from hard, rigid components. Their colors are stable as long as the nanostructure remains intact, but the application of excessive forces to these relatively brittle structures typically leads to an irreversible structural change and thus a change or loss of color. By contrast, many natural photonic coloration strategies are dynamic and responsive, such as in chameleons, [16] cephalopods, [17-20] tetra fish, [21] and the tortoise beetle. [22] For example, chameleon skin contains photonic arrays of high-refractive-index guanine nanocrystals that are embedded in a softer, low-refractive-index cytoplasmic matrix. [16] The reversible deformation of such composite structures enables the animal to reflect wavelengths of light in a spatially and spectrally selective manner for dazzling camouflage displays. Recent progress in synthetic approaches toward precisely ordered soft nanostructures has opened up a new class of structurally colored materials that also respond dynamically and reversibly to stimuli, such as pH, heat, light, and deformation. The design of responsive photonic structures has often been informed and inspired by natural coloration strategies. [3,23-25] To mimic natural materials and access responsive structural color, polymers are frequently employed as a component on account of their mechanical (low moduli and optionally elastic behavior) and optical (high transparency, low refractive Mechanochromic effects in structurally colored materials are the result of deformation-induced changes to their ordered nanostructures. Polymeric materials which respond in this way to deformation offer an attractive combination of characteristics, including continuous strain sensing, high strain resolution, and a wide strain-sensing range. Such materials are potentially useful for a wide range of applications, which extend from pressure-sensing bandages to anti-counterfeiting devices. Focusing on the materials design aspects, recent developments in this fi...

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“…[ 29–32 ] By imitating these extraordinary creatures, many well‐functioning systems and devices have been designed and reported. [ 33–35 ] However, due to the lack of inspirational designs and insufficient manufacturing strategies, intelligent investigations on combining multiple biological characteristics together to enhance bio‐robot performance are still lacking. The combination of structural color change, asymmetric wettability, and object movement driven by Marangoni flow has not been reported now.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinspired Tunable Structural Color Film with Janus Wettability and Interfacial Floatability towards Visible Water Quality Monitoring

Zhang

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2021

Adv Funct Materials

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Superwettability materials from existing natural creatures have been widely studied to enable artificial manufacture. Variable wettability states, especially Janus wettability, have attracted particular interest because of the applications in various intelligent systems. However, to date, most of these existing Janus wettability surfaces lack stimuli‐response visualization, which requires the connection of electrical instruments to process and display external stimulus signals. Inspired by the functional performance of lotus leaf and Betta splendens, a multifunctional asymmetric film is designed by using the superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic binary cooperative strategy and tunable structural color feature. Thus, it is demonstrated that the Janus membrane could not only timely report the arrival of the environmental variables via directional migration induced by Marangoni effect, but also quantitively feedback the stimuli through visible structural color variations. These features indicate that the Janus wettability structural color film may open a potential chapter in designing and fabricating the multifunctional robotic environmental detector.

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Bioinspired conductive cellulose liquid-crystal hydrogels as multifunctional electrical skins

Cited by 187 publications

References 47 publications

3D‐Printed Biomimetic Systems with Synergetic Color and Shape Responses Based on Oblate Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets

3D‐Printed Biomimetic Systems with Synergetic Color and Shape Responses Based on Oblate Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Droplets

Mechanochromism in Structurally Colored Polymeric Materials

Bioinspired Tunable Structural Color Film with Janus Wettability and Interfacial Floatability towards Visible Water Quality Monitoring

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