For the development of anisotropic thermal interface materials (TIMs), a rod-shaped reactive monomer PNP-6MA is newly designed and successfully synthesized. PNP-6MA reveals a smectic A (SmA) mesophase between crystalline (K) and isotropic (I) phases. PNP-6MA can be oriented under a magnetic field ( B = 2 T), and its macroscopic orientation can be robustly stabilized by in situ polymerization. Even without macroscopic orientations, the fabricated thermal conducting liquid crystal (TCLC) films show the outstanding thermal conductivity of 1.21 W/m K, which is higher than conventional organic materials. The thermal conductivity of uniaxially and macroscopically oriented TCLC films can be 2.5 W/m K along the long axis of mesogenic core. The newly developed TCLC film can be used as a TIM between a high-power light-emitting diode and a heat sink.

Bandwidth-tunable anisotropic spatial light modulators are fabricated with redox-responsive dichroic mesogens. By introducing an ionic group and a polymerizable group into the chromophore, the programmed reactive mesogen (PDI-MA) exhibits a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal (LCLC) phase. The PDI-MA molecule forms a stable aromatic dianion state so that the absorption wavelengths of the dichroic mesogen can be reversibly tuned by redox reactions. Through a continuous process of coating, molecular self-assembly, and polymerization, redoxresponsive and uniaxially oriented LCLC polymer films are fabricated. Because of the high dichroic ratio of PDI-MA, the uniaxially oriented LCLC network is capable of anisotropic light modulation in the visible-light spectrum. Uniaxially oriented LCLC films are applied to flexible multichromic smart windows and optical security filters for anticounterfeiting.

The development of a shape memory polymer (SMP) with high thermal conductivity should precede the fabrication of fast-responsive soft thermoactuators because the effective heat transfer in thermoactuators expedites the shape-morphing process. A tetrathiafulvalene (TTF)-based monomer (TTF-SH) containing four flexible chains and thiol reactive functions is newly designed and synthesized for the development of SMP with excellent thermal conductivity. Thanks to the thermally induced chemical bond formation of TTF-SH from thiol to disulfide, TTF-based SMP is simply prepared without the addition of any catalyst or initiator. The TTF SMP exhibits not only high thermal conductivity (1.12 W/(m K)) but also high fixing and recovery ratios (99.42 and 99.98%). The correlation between heat transfer and shape-morphing speed of the TTF SMP is established by examining shape memory characteristics over time. The TTF SMP shows a fast shape-morphing response due to its excellent thermal conductivity. With the newly developed TTF SMP thermoactuator, we demonstrate a warning sensor to alarm the device overheating as well as a smart sunshade to automatically cut off solar energy.

Many studies on the basis of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) have focused on dynamic optical changes utilizing photochemical reactions raising helical pitch variations. However, the conventional dyes doped in CLC system often show reversible isomerization such as trans‐cis, E‐Z, and open‐close forms that hampers the fixation of desired color cues. Here, a cyanostilbene‐based reactive mesogen (CSRM) for phototunable and subsequently polymerizable smart CLC paints is newly designed and synthesized. The structural color of the CLC paint can be precisely manipulated in remote controllable manner by inducing a photochemical reaction of CSRM. Due to the irreversible isomerization behaviors of CSRM, the constructed periodic structures with different helical pitches are intactly fixed via in situ photopolymerization under 460 nm light. In addition, the combination of helical nanostructures and cyanostilbene luminophore produces a circularly polarized light emission. The dissymmetry factor of circularly polarized luminescence is dependent on the photoregulated helical nanostructures in CLC films. The decoupled system of triple photofunctionality in a single component of chirophotonic crystalline material is applied to develop advanced optical information storages.

With the significance of heat management, recently, high thermal conducting polymers have attracted attention as promising polymeric matrix materials in miniaturized and flexible devices. Porphyrin-based reactive metallomesogens (PorV-x; x =...