Photonic Crystals: Light‐Patterned Crystallographic Direction of a Self‐Organized 3D Soft Photonic Crystal (Adv. Mater. 42/2017)

Zheng, Zhigang; Yuan, Cong‐Long; Hu, Wei; Bisoyi, Hari Krishna; Tang, Ming; Liu, Zhen; Sun, Peizhi; Yang, Wei‐Qiang; Wang, Xiaoqian; Shen, Dong; Li, Yannian; Ye, Fangfu; Lu, Yanqing; Li, Guoqiang; Li, Quan

doi:10.1002/adma.201770301

“…Although the 1D supramolecular polymers generally suffer from low mechanical robustness, such a brilliant concept drives the advancement of adaptive, responsive, and reorganizable polymeric materials that are healable, reprocessable, and recyclable, thanks to the dynamic and reversible nature of noncovalent bonds [6–16] . In this scenario, crosslinking macromolecules by abundant noncovalent bonds to form 3D supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs) has emerged as an alternative paradigm for the design of mechanically robust polymeric materials with dynamic and reversible properties [17–48] . Nevertheless, the advantageous dynamic nature of noncovalent bonds conversely results in poor stability of SPNs, which significantly plagues their practical utility as reliable and sustainable materials in human activities and engineering applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrastable, Superrobust, and Recyclable Supramolecular Polymer Networks

Niu,

Li,

Liang

et al. 2024

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Supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs), crosslinked by noncovalent bonds, have emerged as reorganizable and recyclable polymeric materials with unique functionality. However, poor stability is an imperative challenge faced by SPNs, because SPNs are susceptible to heat, water, and/or solvents due to the dynamic and reversible nature of noncovalent bonds. Herein, the design of a noncovalent cooperative network (NCoN) to simultaneously stabilize and reinforce SPNs is reported, resulting in an ultrastable, superrobust, and recyclable SPN. The NCoN is constructed by multiplying the H‐bonding sites and tuning the conformation/geometry of the H‐bonding segment to optimize the multivalence cooperativity of H‐bonds. The rationally designed H‐bonding segment with high conformational compliance favors the formation of tightly packed H‐bond arrays comprising higher‐density and stronger H‐bonds. Consequently, the H‐bonded crosslinks in the NCoN display a covalent crosslinking effect but retain on‐demand dynamics and reversibility. The resultant ultrastable SPN not only displays remarkable resistance to heat up to 120 °C, water soaking, and a broad spectrum of solvents, but also possesses a superhigh true stress at break (1.1 GPa) and an ultrahigh toughness (406 MJ m‐3). Despite the covalent‐network‐like stability, the SPN is recyclable through activating its reversibility in a high‐polarity solvent heated to a threshold temperature.

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“…Although the 1D supramolecular polymers generally suffer from low mechanical robustness, such a brilliant concept drives the advancement of adaptive, responsive, and reorganizable polymeric materials that are healable, reprocessable, and recyclable, thanks to the dynamic and reversible nature of noncovalent bonds [6–16] . In this scenario, crosslinking macromolecules by abundant noncovalent bonds to form 3D supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs) has emerged as an alternative paradigm for the design of mechanically robust polymeric materials with dynamic and reversible properties [17–48] . Nevertheless, the advantageous dynamic nature of noncovalent bonds conversely results in poor stability of SPNs, which significantly plagues their practical utility as reliable and sustainable materials in human activities and engineering applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrastable, Superrobust, and Recyclable Supramolecular Polymer Networks

Niu,

Li,

Liang

et al. 2024

Angewandte Chemie

2

0

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Supramolecular polymer networks (SPNs), crosslinked by noncovalent bonds, have emerged as reorganizable and recyclable polymeric materials with unique functionality. However, poor stability is an imperative challenge faced by SPNs, because SPNs are susceptible to heat, water, and/or solvents due to the dynamic and reversible nature of noncovalent bonds. Herein, the design of a noncovalent cooperative network (NCoN) to simultaneously stabilize and reinforce SPNs is reported, resulting in an ultrastable, superrobust, and recyclable SPN. The NCoN is constructed by multiplying the H‐bonding sites and tuning the conformation/geometry of the H‐bonding segment to optimize the multivalence cooperativity of H‐bonds. The rationally designed H‐bonding segment with high conformational compliance favors the formation of tightly packed H‐bond arrays comprising higher‐density and stronger H‐bonds. Consequently, the H‐bonded crosslinks in the NCoN display a covalent crosslinking effect but retain on‐demand dynamics and reversibility. The resultant ultrastable SPN not only displays remarkable resistance to heat up to 120 °C, water soaking, and a broad spectrum of solvents, but also possesses a superhigh true stress at break (1.1 GPa) and an ultrahigh toughness (406 MJ m‐3). Despite the covalent‐network‐like stability, the SPN is recyclable through activating its reversibility in a high‐polarity solvent heated to a threshold temperature.

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“…Creating large BP monocrystals is however a non-trivial task that becomes more complicated when the control of the lattice orientation is involved. BPs have been previously produced in virtually ideal small crystals by various methods, for instance, by orienting layers, by a long-lasting applied voltage, microwell confinement, or photopatterning 24 – 27 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

All-optical 3D blue phase photonic crystal switch with photosensitive dopants

Oton,

Cigl,

Morawiak

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

0

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Blue phase (BP) liquid crystals (LC) have lately become the focus of extensive research due to their peculiar properties and structure. BPs exhibit a highly organized 3D structure with a lattice period in the hundreds of nm. Owing to such structure, BPs are regarded as 3D photonic crystals. The unique properties of this complex LC phase are achieved by the self-assembly of the LC molecules into periodic cubic structures, producing bright selective Bragg reflections. Novel applications involving 3D photonic crystals would certainly benefit from enhanced ground-breaking functionalities. However, the use of BPs as 3D has been traditionally curtailed by the BP crystals trend to grow as random polycrystals, making it difficult to develop practical BP-based photonic devices. The possibility of generating mm-sized BP monocrystals was recently demonstrated. However, besides increasing the scarce number of 3D photonic structural materials, their applications as 3D photonic crystals do not show apparent advantages over other solid materials or metamaterials. Having a tunable BP monocrystal, where crystals could be switched, modulating simultaneously some of their properties as 3D photonic crystals, they would constitute a new family of materials with superior performance to other existing materials, opening up a plethora of new applications. In this work, an all-optical switchable 3D photonic crystal based on BPs doped with tailored photoactive molecules is demonstrated. Two switching modes have been achieved, one where the BP reversibly transitions between two BP phases, BPI and BPII, (two different cubic crystal systems) while maintaining the monocrystallinity of the whole system. The second mode, again reversible, switches between BPI and isotropic state. None of these modes are related to the regular thermal transitions between LC phases; switching is triggered by light pulses of different wavelengths. This all-optical approach allows for a seamless fast remotely controlled optical switch between two 3D photonic crystals in different cubic crystal systems and between a photonic crystal and an isotropic matrix. Applications of switchable BPs for adaptive optics systems or photonic integrated circuits would make great advances using 3D photonic crystal switches. All-optical photonic systems such as these hold great promise for the development of tunable and efficient photonic devices such as dynamic optical filters and sensors, as they enable light-driven modulation and sensing applications with unprecedented versatility.

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Photonic Crystals: Light‐Patterned Crystallographic Direction of a Self‐Organized 3D Soft Photonic Crystal (Adv. Mater. 42/2017)

Cited by 6 publications

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Ultrastable, Superrobust, and Recyclable Supramolecular Polymer Networks

Ultrastable, Superrobust, and Recyclable Supramolecular Polymer Networks

Ultrastable, Superrobust, and Recyclable Supramolecular Polymer Networks

All-optical 3D blue phase photonic crystal switch with photosensitive dopants

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