Photoinduced reorganization of motor-doped chiral liquid crystals: bridging molecular isomerization and texture rotation.

We recently reported that the photoisomerization of molecular motors used as chiral dopants in a cholesteric liquid crystal film induces a rotational reorganization which can be observed by optical microscopy and produces the motion of microscopic objects placed on top of the film (Feringa, B. L.; et al.

Light-controlled supramolecular helicity of a liquid crystalline phase using a helical polymer functionalized with a single chiroptical molecular switch.

Control over the preferred helical sense of a poly(n-hexyl isocyanate) (PHIC) by using a single light-driven molecular motor, covalently attached at the polymer's terminus, has been accomplished in solution via a combination of photochemical and thermal isomerizations. Here, we report that after redesigning the photochromic unit to a chiroptical molecular switch, of which the two states are thermally stable but photochemically bistable, the chiral induction to the polymer's backbone is significantly improved and the handedness of the helical polymer is addressable by irradiation with two different wavelengths of light. Moreover, we show that the chiral information is transmitted, via the macromolecular level of the polyisocyanate, to the supramolecular level of a lyotropic cholesteric liquid crystalline phase consisting of these stiff, rodlike polymers.