Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, Volume. 40, Issue 1, 75(2025)

Progress on chiral photoswitches for constructing liquid crystal helical structures

Honglong HU and Zhigang ZHENG*
Author Affiliations
  • School of Physics, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China
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    Photoresponsive chiral liquid crystal materials, as a type of soft matter with self-assembly and entropy-driven ordering properties, exhibit excellent optical modulation of helical structures and are widely used in optical anti-counterfeiting, optical coding, and laser engineering. By incorporating chiral photoswitches into liquid crystal systems, light-induced chiral conversion can be effectively harnessed to remotely control the self-assembled helical structures of the liquid crystal materials. Currently, azobenzene, molecular motors, and diarylethene are widely utilized as chiral photoswitches in liquid crystal systems. These compounds exhibit weak stimulus and strong response control properties, highlighting their broad application prospects.This paper focuses on the structural design concepts of these three types of chiral photoswitches and summarizes the unique properties exhibited in light-modulated liquid crystal helical structures, including the reversible optical control of parameters such as helical structure pitch size and direction.Finally, the light-responsive flexible liquid crystal materials constructed using these photoswitches demonstrated their ability to achieve changes in color and shape through light manipulation, showcasing potential application in information storage, anti-counterfeiting, soft robotics, and wearable devices, along with an outlook on future developments in this field.

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    Honglong HU, Zhigang ZHENG. Progress on chiral photoswitches for constructing liquid crystal helical structures[J]. Chinese Journal of Liquid Crystals and Displays, 2025, 40(1): 75

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    Paper Information

    Category: Chiral Liquid Crystal Materials

    Received: Aug. 29, 2024

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Mar. 31, 2025

    The Author Email: Zhigang ZHENG (zgzheng@ecust.edu.cn)

    DOI:10.37188/CJLCD.2024-0257

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