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A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals

Polymer-stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) are multi-functional materials consisting of polymer networks in a continuous phase of liquid crystals (LCs), of which polymer networks provide anchoring energy to align the LCs. A number of improvements are detailed, including polymer-stabilized nematic li...

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Autores principales: Ye, Yong, Guo, Li, Zhong, Tingjun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10346194/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37447607
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15132962
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author Ye, Yong
Guo, Li
Zhong, Tingjun
author_facet Ye, Yong
Guo, Li
Zhong, Tingjun
author_sort Ye, Yong
collection PubMed
description Polymer-stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) are multi-functional materials consisting of polymer networks in a continuous phase of liquid crystals (LCs), of which polymer networks provide anchoring energy to align the LCs. A number of improvements are detailed, including polymer-stabilized nematic liquid crystals (PSNLCs), polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals (PSCLCs), polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals (PSBPLCs), polymer-stabilized smectic liquid crystals (PSSLCs), polymer-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals (PSFLCs), and polymer-stabilized antiferroelectric liquid crystals (PSAFLCs) in this review. Polymer stabilization has achieved multiple functionalities for LCs; in smart windows, a sufficiently strong electric field allows the LCs to reorient and enables switching from a scattering (transparent) state to a transparent (scattering) state. For broadband reflectors, the reflection bandwidth of LCs is manually tuned by electric fields, light, magnetic fields, or temperature. PSBPLCs open a new way for next-generation displays, spatial light modulators, sensors, lasers, lenses, and photonics applications. Polymer networks in PSFLCs or PSAFLCs enhance their grayscale memories utilized in flexible displays and energy-saving smart cards. At the end, the remaining challenges and research opportunities of PSLCs are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-103461942023-07-15 A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals Ye, Yong Guo, Li Zhong, Tingjun Polymers (Basel) Review Polymer-stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) are multi-functional materials consisting of polymer networks in a continuous phase of liquid crystals (LCs), of which polymer networks provide anchoring energy to align the LCs. A number of improvements are detailed, including polymer-stabilized nematic liquid crystals (PSNLCs), polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals (PSCLCs), polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystals (PSBPLCs), polymer-stabilized smectic liquid crystals (PSSLCs), polymer-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals (PSFLCs), and polymer-stabilized antiferroelectric liquid crystals (PSAFLCs) in this review. Polymer stabilization has achieved multiple functionalities for LCs; in smart windows, a sufficiently strong electric field allows the LCs to reorient and enables switching from a scattering (transparent) state to a transparent (scattering) state. For broadband reflectors, the reflection bandwidth of LCs is manually tuned by electric fields, light, magnetic fields, or temperature. PSBPLCs open a new way for next-generation displays, spatial light modulators, sensors, lasers, lenses, and photonics applications. Polymer networks in PSFLCs or PSAFLCs enhance their grayscale memories utilized in flexible displays and energy-saving smart cards. At the end, the remaining challenges and research opportunities of PSLCs are discussed. MDPI 2023-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10346194/ /pubmed/37447607 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15132962 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Ye, Yong
Guo, Li
Zhong, Tingjun
A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title_full A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title_fullStr A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title_full_unstemmed A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title_short A Review of Developments in Polymer Stabilized Liquid Crystals
title_sort review of developments in polymer stabilized liquid crystals
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10346194/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37447607
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15132962
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