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

Abstract

With the demand for the diversity and security of information deliveries increasing, advanced security tag for data encryption has attracted great interest from the scientific community. It is promising to achieve composite dynamic information storage by the combination of multisource stimuli‐responsive mechanism. Here, mechano‐ and chemochromism cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs) are prepared by introducing a rhodamine lactam‐based functional trigger by two different strategies, one of which is one‐pot method and another is postfunctionalization method. The performances of the CLCEs from two strategies are investigated, which are demonstrated to be effective methods in endowing material with new function, and suitable for different application scenarios. The composite material combines the force‐induced structural periodicity variation of CLCE and the pigmentary and fluorescent properties changes of the functional trigger caused by the chemical environment. The orthogonal construction of dynamic structural color pattern and reversible pigmentary and fluorescent colors pattern enable the information in the CLCE to display double encryption mode, which exhibits great potential in the information storage and anti‐counterfeiting.

Dual host–guest interaction-mediated photoswitchable fluorescent supramolecular polymers for anti-counterfeiting and encryption

“…Information encryption and anti-counterfeiting play an important role in daily life, such as information security, and avoiding the loss caused by imitation. 7,[48][49][50][51][52] We first investigated the potential application in information encryption based on the binary codes of the standard 8-bit ASCII characters. SPS-5 containing NC-DSA-CN and SPS-4 containing NC-DSA-CN and CDSP were selected as encryption units to create information lattices (Fig.…”

Stimuli-fluorochromic smart organic materials

“…Pressure and pulling force are predominant exogenous external stimuli, which can regulate the optical properties of organic solids efficiently and flexibly. 37,59,93,154,213,222,354–363 Smart materials with isotropic/artificial pressure-fluorochromism, capable of exhibiting color changes when subjected to hydrostatic pressure or artificial pressure, are also one kind of piezochromic fluorescent (PCF) materials. To date, various organic molecule-based PCF materials responding to the stimuli of hydrostatic pressure and artificial pressure have also been reported, 37,39 while the materials with artificial pulling force-fluorochromism, which are usually prepared by covalently or non-covalently blending a chromophore into a polymer matrix, can present color changes when subjected to artificial stretching.…”

“…Dye-incorporated polymers are the main family members of stretching-fluorochromism materials, in which the use of polymer matrix endows the composite materials with good stretchability. 28,93,213,222,361–363 The fluorescence color of the guest within the materials can be drastically changed along with the tensile deformation of the host polymer. This strategy of dye-incorporated polymers undoubtly created more opportunities for the exploration and synthesis of mechano-fluorochromism materials, and the resulting materials bear significant potential in strain sensors.…”

Light and Humidity Dual-Responsive Anti-Counterfeiting Films Based on Hydrogen-Bonded Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Polymers with Spiropyran

“…Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in the anti-counterfeiting model that marries structural and fluorescent colors . In the research by the Yao group, they unveiled a dual-mode anti-counterfeiting coating, fusing fluorescent dyes with liquid crystal polymers.…”

“…Recent years have witnessed a surge of interest in the anticounterfeiting model 17 that marries structural 18 and fluorescent colors. 19 In the research by the Yao 20 nonchiral dyes with cholesteric liquid crystals, offering precise control over circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) intensity.…”