Programming Thermochromic Liquid Crystal Hetero-Oligomers for Near-Infrared Reflectors: Unequal Incorporation of Similar Reactive Mesogens in Thiol-ene Oligomers.

Cholesteric liquid crystal oligomers are widely researched for their interesting thermochromic properties. However, structure-property relationships to program the thermochromic properties of these oligomers have been rarely reported. In this work, we use the versatile thiol-ene click reaction to synthesize a series of hetero-oligomers and study the impact of different compositions on the thermochromic behavior of the resulting material.

Multicolor photonic patterns through an intensity-controlled single photopolymerization step.

The UV intensity during photopolymerization allows control over the structural color of a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) polymer photonic coating in a single step. Simultaneously, the glass transition temperature () of the polymer can be tuned by the applied UV intensity. Most likely the low intensity photopolymerization increases the inhibition time, leading to formation of polymer fragments through oxygen inhibition.