Abstract
ABSTRACT Transparency and stability to UV light are important and desirable properties for modern tunable optical elements and active soft robots. A library of novel reactive mesogens for liquid crystal polymer networks resilient and transparent to UV light has been synthetised and characterised. Phase behaviours of the reactive mesogens have been determined by polarised optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Liquid crystal polymer networks based on the combination of these novel reactive mesogens have been evaluated and compared to those based on common commercially available compounds. The results showed a twofold increase in transparency in a broad UV spectral region (200–400 nm) and importantly showed no degradation upon prolonged UV exposure contrary to the networks composed from commercial counterparts.
Highlights
Liquid crystalline materials have recently reached beyond applications in display technology, to extend to smart materials for advanced optics such as tunable filters, retarders, diffraction gratings and sensors [1,2,3,4,5]
The results showed a twofold increase in transparency in a broad UV spectral region (200–400 nm) and importantly showed no degradation upon prolonged UV exposure contrary to the networks composed from commercial counterparts
We describe the synthesis and characterisation of 12 reactive mesogens, which can be used as building blocks for liquid crystal polymer networks (LCPNs) with enhanced photostability and UV transparency unmatched by commercially available analogues
Summary
Liquid crystalline materials have recently reached beyond applications in display technology, to extend to smart materials for advanced optics such as tunable filters, retarders, diffraction gratings and sensors [1,2,3,4,5]. The design and synthesis of sophisticated liquid crystal polymer networks (LCPNs) have opened new perspectives for soft robotics and the development of light-driven soft robots [6,7]. We have overcome these two limitations in order to create materials which are transparent and resilient to UV light, including UV-A (315–400 nm) and UV-B (280–315 nm), and are suitable as host media for UV photoactive molecules (switches and molecular motors). We describe the synthesis and characterisation of 12 reactive mesogens (mono- and diacrylates), which can be used as building blocks for LCPNs with enhanced photostability and UV transparency unmatched by commercially available analogues
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