Bioinspired humidity-responsive liquid crystalline materials: from adaptive soft actuators to visualized sensors and detectors

Lan, Ruochen; Shen, Wenbo; Yao, Wenhuan; Chen, Jingyu; Chen, Xinyu; Yang, Huai

doi:10.1039/d3mh00392b

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…Thanks to the combination of anisotropy of liquid crystals (LCs) and elasticity of polymers, LCPs have been proved to be potentially applicable in adaptive soft actuators, responsive photonic crystals, dynamic optical modulators, complex bionic devices, and soft templates. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] From a synthetic perspective, LCPs are prepared by polymerizing small molar weight LC monomers. Based on the mesogen alignment, the LCPs can be categorized into nematic LCP, cholesteric LCP (CLCP), blue phase LCP, and so on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive liquid crystal polymers based on dynamic bonds: From fundamentals to functionalities

Lan,

Hu,

Chen

et al. 2024

Responsive Materials

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Liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) have gained tremendous attention in recent years due to their great potentials from fabrication of responsive actuators and sensors to construction of intelligent soft robotic and light modulators. However, conventional LCPs with permanent cross‐links present tedious and unmodifiable stimuli‐responsiveness. Recently, dynamic bonds capable to reversibly break and reform have been integrated into LCP, imparting intrinsic dynamic characteristics. The dynamic LCP possesses unprecedented diverse functionalities including reprogrammability, recyclability, and self‐healing ability, becoming much more adaptive to surrounding environmental changes compared with the conventional counterpart. In this review, recent progress of dynamic bond‐based LCPs is summarized. The mechanism, preparation, and functionalities of dynamic LCPs based on dynamic noncovalent bond (DNCB) and dynamic covalent bond (DCB) are poised to be discussed, followed by introducing emergent LCPs combining both of DNCB and DCB. Consequently, the unique functionalities of dynamic bond‐based LCPs will be given. Finally, outlooks of development of the dynamic bond‐based LCPs are presented.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive liquid crystal polymers based on dynamic bonds: From fundamentals to functionalities

Lan,

Hu,

Chen

et al. 2024

Responsive Materials

Self Cite

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“…3D blue‐phase liquid crystal (BPLC) molecules form double‐twisted cylinders by arranging themselves in a double‐twisted state, such that cylinders stack on top of each other to create two kinds of periodic 3D lattices. The lattices have either body‐centered cubic symmetry or simple cubic symmetry, and they show a narrow photonic band gap [58–60] . The creation of intelligent optical devices that respond to stimuli, such as powerful 3D tunable lasers, would be propelled by the continuous advancement in the manipulation of BPLCEs [61,62] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers: Design, properties and application

Liu,

Ma,

Yang

et al. 2024

Smart Molecules

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Smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers are a class of soft photonic crystals with periodic nanostructures. There are two kinds of chiral liquid crystal elastomers with structural colors: cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers with a one‐dimensional helical nanostructure and blue‐phase liquid crystal elastomers with a three‐dimensional photonic crystal nanostructure. The self‐assembled nanostructure of chiral liquid crystal elastomers can be dynamically controlled under external stimulation, and the reflected color can be adjusted throughout the visible light range. Along with the development of innovative material systems and cutting‐edge manufacturing technologies, researchers have proposed diverse strategies to design and synthesize chiral liquid crystal elastomers and have thoroughly investigated their properties and potential applications. Here, we provide a systematic review of the progress in the design and fabrication of smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers, focusing on the cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers via surface‐enforced alignment, bar coating, 3D printing, anisotropic deswelling methods as well as the three‐dimensional self‐assembly of blue‐phase liquid crystal elastomers without additional alignment. Smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers are able to respond quickly to external stimuli and have a wide range of applications in areas such as adaptive optics, color‐changing camouflage, soft robotics, and information encryption. This review concludes with a perspective on the opportunities and challenges for the future development of smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers.

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“…Thus, materials integrated with SF can confer excellent humidity response properties. [ 27–30 ] In addition, many humidity‐responsive colored materials with flat aligned structures and hydrogen bonding interactions can be developed and used in a variety of sensors, [ 24,31–33 ] inspired by the humidity response of the shells of the Dynastes hercules . Thus, by exploiting the above advantages, new humidity‐responsive diffraction films will lead to interesting developments in the field of humidity monitoring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bionic Diffractive Meta‐Silk Patch for Visually Flexible Wearables

Dong,

Wei,

Zhou

et al. 2024

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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Rapid humidity response contributes tremendously to visually flexible wearables. However, sluggish response, infrequent reproducibility, and biotoxicity restrict the development of wearable humidity response devices. Here, inspired by the changes in the color of Dynastes hercules, a flexible wearable, rapid response, stretchable, rewritable meta‐silk fibroin diffractive film (mSFD) is presented. The film is generated by spin‐coating silk protein and polyurethane (PU) cross‐linking, followed by hot pressing of meta‐structures. Owing to the diffraction and stable combination of the SF β‐structure and PU hydrogen bond, mSFDs exhibit excellent coloration, rapid response, and erasability. Notably, the microcolumns and microporous structures on the meta‐membrane endow the membrane with unparalleled rapid response features. Fast color disappearance and reappearance are observed under high humidity conditions (response time <2 ms, cycle in 1 s). In particular, the rapid humidity responsiveness of mSFP induces a change in the color of the membrane, which enables its application in real‐time biomonitoring (wound management, mask regulation) and anticounterfeiting (medicine storage, fingerprint recognition). These properties endow bioinspired mSFD P with high potential in the field of robotic skin.

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Bioinspired humidity-responsive liquid crystalline materials: from adaptive soft actuators to visualized sensors and detectors

Abstract: Inspired by nature, humidity-responsive materials and devices have attracted intense research interests of scientists in multidiscipline from chemistry, physics, to materials science and biomimetics. Thanks to their superiorities including harmless...

Cited by 20 publications

References 122 publications

Adaptive liquid crystal polymers based on dynamic bonds: From fundamentals to functionalities

Adaptive liquid crystal polymers based on dynamic bonds: From fundamentals to functionalities

Smart chiral liquid crystal elastomers: Design, properties and application

Bionic Diffractive Meta‐Silk Patch for Visually Flexible Wearables

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