The preparation and properties of circularly polarized luminescent liquid crystal physical gels with self-supporting performance

Abstract

In recent years, great progress has been made in the preparation methods and performance regulation of host–guest doped CPL liquid crystal materials. However, there still exist some basic problems to be solved, such as complex packaging and unstable CPL properties. With the consideration of the above problems, in this study, we introduced gelators into the host–guest doped CPL liquid crystal materials to prepare CPL liquid crystal physical gels. The gelators can be assembled to form a nanofiber physical gel network, which limits the movement of the liquid crystals and enhances the stability of the CPL properties. Meanwhile, liquid crystal physical gels show self-supporting ability and the gel–sol phase transition temperature can reach 136 °C. The amplification of the g_lum value is achieved by self-assembly of chiral liquid crystals, and the g_lum value can reach −0.31. The phase structure changes with electric field and temperature, and the CPL properties can be regulated by changing the temperature and electric field. With the increasing applied voltage or the temperature, the g_lum value decreases. Therefore, we have successfully prepared a new type of CPL liquid crystal physical gels with self-supporting performance, stimulus response performance and large g_lum values.