Force‐Induced Synergetic Pigmentary and Structural Color Change of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer with Nanoparticle‐Enhanced Mechanosensitivity

Abstract

The ability of some animals to rapidly change their colors can greatly improve their chances of escaping predators or hunting prey. A classic example is cephalopods, which can rapidly shift through a wide range of colors. This ability is based on the synergetic effect of the change of pigmentary and structural colors exhibited by their own two categories of color‐changing cells: supernatant chromatophores offer various pigmentary colors and lower iridophores or leucophores reflect the different structural colors by adjusting their periodicities. Here, a mechanochromic liquid crystalline elastomer with force‐induced synergetic pigmentary and structural color change, whose mechanosensitivity is enhanced by the stress‐concentration induced by the doped nanoparticle, is presented. The materials have a large color‐changing gamut and high mechanochromic sensitivity, which exhibit great potential in the field of mechanical detectors, sensors, and anti‐counterfeiting materials.

Optical Characteristics of Stretchable Chiral Liquid Crystal Elastomer under Multiaxial Stretching

“…Upon stretching CLCEs perpendicular to the standing helix axis, the structural color and PBG from the nanospiral birefringence rotation can be tuned with strain-induced chiral pitch deformations. In this regard, stretchable CLCEs have received increasing research interest [41][42][43][44] since the first report of their synthesis by Finkelmann et al [45][46][47] Utilizing multiple technical benefits of CLCs such as self-organized chiral structural color and resulting vivid photonic wavelength control with single liquid crystal material, stretchable CLCEs have been intensively investigated for various potential applications such as mechanical sensor, [48] smart textiles, [49] and camouflage. [50] Hereupon, intensive research efforts to develop devices for various applications utilizing mechanochromic properties CLCEs are being made.…”

Reversible Information Storage Based on Rhodamine Derivative in Mechanochromic Cholesteric Liquid Crystalline Elastomer

“…Stimuli-responsive materials have been an attractive research hotspot due to their great potential in many fields, including DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202305364 optical data storage, [1][2][3][4][5] optoelectronic devices, [6,7] thermal sensor, [8,9] camouflage [10,11] and drug delivery, [12] etc. Common stimulation manners include light stimulation, [13][14][15][16][17] thermal stimulation, force stimulation, electrical stimulation, [18,19] and magnetic stimulation.…”

Multifunctional Ionic Conductive Anisotropic Elastomers with Self-Wrinkling Microstructures by In Situ Phase Separation

“…The color change visible to the naked eye can directly and quickly transfer information and has been applied to wearable sensors. , Visual signals are obtained by deformation of structural color materials including photonic crystals, − plasmonic materials, and liquid crystals (LCs). − Therefore, introducing structural color into ICEs is a potential way to prepare flexible stretchable devices with electrical and optical dual-signal outputs. Electrical signals support accurate sensing capability, and optical signals output visual information. , However, it is still devilishly challenging to produce large-area, stable, facile, and inexpensive structural color materials by simple methods.…”