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Colorful patterned organic–inorganic hybrid silica films with a cholesteric structure

  • Original Paper: Functional coatings, thin films and membranes (including deposition techniques)
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Abstract

Structural colors have been widely found in nature. Herein, structural colored organic–inorganic hybrid silica (OIHS) films were prepared using a mixture of an organosilane with an enantiotropic nematic phase and a chiral dopant under an acidic condition. After the polycondensation of organosilane, the selective Bragg reflection band of the obtained OIHS film shifted to short wavelength. Due to the E-Z photoisomerization of the chiral dopant, the liquid crystalline mixture showed a photochromic behavior, whose color changed from purple to red with extending UV irradiation time. Then, colorful patterns were prepared using masks.

Graphical abstract

Highlights

  • Photochromic liquid crytalline mixtures were prepared.

  • Structural colored organic–inorganic hybrid silica films were prepared.

  • The colorful patterns can be programmable.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (20KJA430009) and the Project of Scientific and Technologic Infrastructure of Suzhou (SZS201905).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Jiangsu Engineering Laboratory of Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Key Laboratory of Polymeric Materials Design and Synthesis for Biomedical Function, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Tao Xu, Runwei Yu, Wei Liu, Hongkun Li, Yi Li & Yonggang Yang

Authors
  1. Tao Xu
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  2. Runwei Yu
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  3. Wei Liu
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  4. Hongkun Li
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  5. Yi Li
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  6. Yonggang Yang
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Contributions

TX: data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft. RY: data curation. WL: formal analysis. HL: formal analysis, writing—review and editing. YL: formal analysis, funding acquisition. YY: supervision, project administration, writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yonggang Yang.

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Xu, T., Yu, R., Liu, W. et al. Colorful patterned organic–inorganic hybrid silica films with a cholesteric structure. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 104, 91–96 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-022-05926-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-022-05926-6

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