Paintable temperature-responsive cholesteric liquid crystal reflectors encapsulated on a single flexible polymer substrate

Abstract

This work describes the fabrication of temperature-responsive light reflectors deposited on flexible single substrates, a photonic cholesteric liquid crystal system encapsulated by a protective polymer layer generated by photo-enforced stratification. A bendable orange reflector was fabricated by this single application step. Furthermore, a blue shift of 400 nm of an infrared cholesteric reflector was demonstrated upon increasing the temperature from room temperature to 100 °C. Such reflectors on flexible substrates could be used for the retrofitting of existing windows to save energy and visible reflectors in clothing or other aesthetically pleasing applications.