Ultrastable liquid crystalline blue phase from molecular synergistic self-assembly

• Published in: Nature communications 2021-03, Vol.12 (1), p.1440-8, Article 1440
• Main Authors: Hu, Wei, Wang, Ling, Wang, Meng, Zhong, Tingjun, Wang, Qian, Zhang, Lanying, Chen, Feiwu, Li, Kexuan, Miao, Zongcheng, Yang, Dengke, Yang, Huai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/131; 639/301/1019/1022; 639/301/357/341; 639/301/923/3931; 639/638/298/919; Composite materials; Cooling; Crystal structure; Crystallinity; Crystals; Engineering; Functional materials; Humanities and Social Sciences; Liquid crystals; Materials science; Microscopy; Molecular weight; multidisciplinary; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Optoelectronics; Phase transitions; Phases; Photonics; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Self-assembly; Temperature
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21564-y

Fabricating functional materials via molecular self-assembly is a promising approach, and precisely controlling the molecular building blocks of nanostructures in the self-assembly process is an essential and challenging task. Blue phase liquid crystals are fascinating self-assembled three-dimensional nanomaterials because of their potential information displays and tuneable photonic applications. However, one of the main obstacles to their applications is their narrow temperature range of a few degrees centigrade, although many prior studies have broadened it to tens via molecular design. In this work, a series of tailored uniaxial rodlike mesogens disfavouring the formation of blue phases are introduced into a blue phase system comprising biaxial dimeric mesogens, a blue phase is observed continuously over a temperature range of 280 °C, and the range remains over 132.0 °C after excluding the frozen glassy state. The findings show that the molecular synergistic self-assembly behavior of biaxial and uniaxial mesogens may play a crucial role in achieving the ultrastable three-dimensional nanostructure of blue phases. Blue phases are spatially ordered yet fragile liquid crystalline structures, bearing applications in optoelectronics and photonics. Hu et al. show that self-assembly within a mixture of different mesogens may significantly broaden the temperature range over which they are stable.