Digital photoprogramming of liquid-crystal superstructures featuring intrinsic chiral photoswitches

Zheng, Zhigang; Hu, Honglong; Zhang, Zhipeng; Liu, Binghui; Li, Mengqi; Qu, Da‐Hui; Tian, He; Zhu, Weihong; Feringa, Ben L.

doi:10.1038/s41566-022-00957-5

Cited by 124 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(64 reference statements)

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“…It is also very important to achieve real-time reconfigurable chiral functional nanomaterials that show ultrasensitive responsiveness to the external environment through the dynamic nature of chiral liquid-crystalline templates. For example, electroresponsive chiral liquid crystals with sub-microsecond response time are particularly interesting for developing ultra-fast chiroptical devices 319 , and the marriage of chiral liquid-crystalline templates with advanced photoalignment technique and emerging chiral photoswitches could facilitate the breakthrough development of reconfigurable chiral functional nanomaterials [320][321][322][323] . Thirdly, extensive efforts should be devoted to bridging the research gap from the proof-ofconcept on a laboratory scale to the large-scale synthesis of chiral functional nanomaterials and their integration into multi-material hierarchical architectures and even more complex advanced functional devices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid crystal-templated chiral nanomaterials: from chiral plasmonics to circularly polarized luminescence

et al. 2022

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Chiral nanomaterials with intrinsic chirality or spatial asymmetry at the nanoscale are currently in the limelight of both fundamental research and diverse important technological applications due to their unprecedented physicochemical characteristics such as intense light-matter interactions, enhanced circular dichroism, and strong circularly polarized luminescence. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art advances in liquid crystal-templated chiral nanomaterials. The chiroptical properties of chiral nanomaterials are touched, and their fundamental design principles and bottom-up synthesis strategies are discussed. Different chiral functional nanomaterials based on liquid-crystalline soft templates, including chiral plasmonic nanomaterials and chiral luminescent nanomaterials, are systematically introduced, and their underlying mechanisms, properties, and potential applications are emphasized. This review concludes with a perspective on the emerging applications, challenges, and future opportunities of such fascinating chiral nanomaterials. This review can not only deepen our understanding of the fundamentals of soft-matter chirality, but also shine light on the development of advanced chiral functional nanomaterials toward their versatile applications in optics, biology, catalysis, electronics, and beyond.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid crystal-templated chiral nanomaterials: from chiral plasmonics to circularly polarized luminescence

et al. 2022

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“…Several visible-light photoswitches have already been applied as the basis of photoresponsive actuators, FETs, MOFs, and soft materials, and in photo-patterning, photopharmacology, and smart display materials. [71,72,[172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180] However, most switches still work within the 400-600 nm window, meaning their bioapplications remain rather limited to in vitro studies or in superficial organs (such as skin) due to the insufficient tissue penetration depth (< 1 mm). Therefore, the realization of photoswitches that operate in both directions with red and NIR light (650-1450 nm) is the essential next step for in vivo photocontrol.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stepping Out of the Blue: From Visible to Near‐IR Triggered Photoswitches

et al. 2022

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Light offers unique opportunities for controlling the activity of materials and biosystems with high spatiotemporal resolution. Molecular photoswitches are chromophores that undergo reversible isomerization between different states upon irradiation with light, allowing a convenient means to control their influence over the system of interest. However, a significant limitation of classical photoswitches is the requirement to initiate the switching in one or both directions using deleterious UV light with poor tissue penetration. Red-shifted photoswitches are hence in high demand and have attracted keen recent research interest. In this Review, we highlight recent progress towards the development of visible-and NIR-activated photoswitches characterized by distinct photochromic reaction mechanisms. We hope to inspire further endeavors in this field, allowing the full potential of these tools in biotechnology and materials chemistry applications to be realized.

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“…Some researchers design a self-organized 3D soft photonic crystal, which could broaden the application scope of the tunable liquid crystal photonic devices 37 . Moreover, a unique intrinsic chiral photoswitch with broad chirality modulation is proposed to achieve digitally controllable, selectable and extractable multiple stable reflection states 38 . The tunable liquid crystal grating is driven by voltage to realize the adjustment of the light beam, and it can be used in many fields such as optical waveguide, beam deflection, optical interconnects, AR display and 3D display 39 – 41 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tunable liquid crystal grating based holographic 3D display system with wide viewing angle and large size

Wang

et al. 2022

Light Sci Appl

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As one of the most ideal display approaches, holographic 3-dimensional (3D) display has always been a research hotspot since the holographic images reproduced in such system are very similar to what humans see the actual environment. However, current holographic 3D displays suffer from critical bottlenecks of narrow viewing angle and small size. Here, we propose a tunable liquid crystal grating-based holographic 3D display system with wide viewing angle and large size. Our tunable liquid crystal grating, providing an adjustable period and the secondary diffraction of the reconstructed image, enables to simultaneously implement two different hologram generation methods in achieving wide viewing angle and enlarged size, respectively. By using the secondary diffraction mechanism of the tunable liquid crystal grating, the proposed system breaks through the limitations of narrow viewing angle and small size of holographic 3D display. The proposed system shows a viewing angle of 57.4°, which is nearly 7 times of the conventional case with a single spatial light modulator, and the size of the reconstructed image is enlarged by about 4.2. The proposed system will have wide applications in medical diagnosis, advertising, education and entertainment and other fields.

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Digital photoprogramming of liquid-crystal superstructures featuring intrinsic chiral photoswitches

Cited by 124 publications

References 46 publications

Liquid crystal-templated chiral nanomaterials: from chiral plasmonics to circularly polarized luminescence

Liquid crystal-templated chiral nanomaterials: from chiral plasmonics to circularly polarized luminescence

Stepping Out of the Blue: From Visible to Near‐IR Triggered Photoswitches

Tunable liquid crystal grating based holographic 3D display system with wide viewing angle and large size

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