Patterned Full-Color Reflective Coatings Based on Photonic Cholesteric Liquid-Crystalline Particles

Alberto Belmonte; Tom Bus; Dirk J Broer; Albert P H J Schenning

doi:10.1021/acsami.9b02680

Patterned Full-Color Reflective Coatings Based on Photonic Cholesteric Liquid-Crystalline Particles

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Apr 17;11(15):14376-14382. doi: 10.1021/acsami.9b02680. Epub 2019 Apr 8.

Authors

Alberto Belmonte^{1

2}, Tom Bus^{1

2}, Dirk J Broer^{1

3

2}, Albert P H J Schenning^{1

3

2}

Affiliations

¹ Stimuli-Responsive Functional Materials and Devices, Department of Chemical Engineering , Eindhoven University of Technology , P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven , The Netherlands.
² Institute for Complex Molecular Systems , Eindhoven University of Technology , Den Dolech 2 , 5600 MB Eindhoven , The Netherlands.
³ SCNU-TUE Joint Laboratory of Device Integrated Responsive Materials (DIRM), Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center , South China Normal University , 510006 Guangzhou , China.

Abstract

An easy approach to pattern angular-independent, multicolor reflective coatings based on cholesteric liquid-crystalline (CLC) particles is presented. CLC particles are fabricated by emulsification, which is a scalable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly synthesis process. The photonic particles can be easily dispersed in a binder to produce reflective coatings. Furthermore, a simple strategy to remove the photonic cross-communication between the particles has been developed. By incorporating a reactive blue/green absorbing dye into the network structure of the CLC particles the cross-communication is absorbed by the dye, leading to well-defined structural colors. Moreover, we demonstrate the possibility of producing patterned multicolor images by controlled swelling of the particles by the binder.

Keywords: cholesteric liquid crystal; photonic cross-communication; photonic particles; reflective coatings; structural color; suspension polymerization.