Development of electroresponsive functional soft materials by electroresponsive dopants

Abstract

AbstractIn this Focus Review, we summarize our new strategy to create electroresponsive soft materials using electroresponsive dopants. Liquid crystals (LCs) are representative electroresponsive soft functional materials that have been utilized for various applications, including LC display devices. The response to the applied electric field (E-field) is generally realized by the direct coupling between the E-field and the LC molecules. Thus, LC molecules must simultaneously exhibit electroresponsiveness and LC properties. As a new concept to create electroresponsive soft materials, we came up with an idea of using electroresponsive dopants. Dopants can change the property of the LC material only with a minute amount and do not need to have an LC property by itself, thus allows more freedom for the molecular design. Based on this new concept, we developed several intriguing materials, such as cholesteric displays with rewritable color memory functions and quick color modulation functions, which are both unprecedented. We also utilized this concept to columnar LC systems and realized multiresponsive columnar LC materials, which are usually rigid and poorly responsive to applied external perturbations.