Chapter 11 - Liquid crystalline aggregation-induced emission luminogens for optical displays

Abstract

Optical displays for smart glasses, see-through displays, and holographic displays have attracted much attention in the modern era. For realizing the applications, light-emitting liquid crystals (LCs), with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) behavior, are expected to play a crucial role; numerous works have been done for developing AIE-active LCs. However, a general design concept for synthesizing AIE-active LCs has been less explored yet. In this chapter, we introduce representative examples of AIE-active LCs synthesized in the last decades; and then, some key strategies on the synthesis from the viewpoint of the molecular skeletons of LCs that have rigid mesogenic core units with terminal flexible chains. Furthermore, we highlight emerging applications using AIE-active LCs, e.g., luminescence changed under external stimuli, linearly/circularly polarized luminescence. We believe that the enrichment of synthetic strategies of AIE-active LCs opens the way for achieving to the development of highly emissive AIE-active LCs with the potential for realizing next-generation optical displays.