Structural and Optical Response of Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Films to Volatile Organic Compounds
Abstract
Engineering useful mechanical properties into stimuli-responsive soft materials without compromising their responsiveness is, in many cases, an unresolved challenge. For example, polymer networks formed within blue-phase liquid crystals (BPs) have been shown to form mechanically robust films, but the impact of polymer networks on the response of these soft materials to chemical stimuli has not been explored. In this work, we report on the response of polymer-stabilized BPs (PSBPs) to volatile organic compounds (VOCs, using toluene as a model compound) and compare the response to BPs without polymer stabilization and to polymerized nematic and cholesteric phases. We find that PSBPs generate an optical response to toluene vapor (change in reflection intensity under crossed polars) that is sixfold greater in sensitivity than the polymerized nematic or cholesteric phases and with a limit of detection (140 ± 10 ppm at 25 °C) that is relevant to the measurement of permissible exposure limits for humans. Additionally, when compared to BPs that have not been polymerized, PSBPs respond to a broader range of toluene vapor concentrations (5000 vs <1000 ppm) over a wider temperature interval (25–45 vs 45–53 °C). We place these experimental observations into the context of a simple thermodynamic model to exploremore »
- Authors:
-
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of)
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Army Research Office (ARO); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1803889
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0019762; W911NF-15-1-0568; W911NF-19-1-0071; CBET-1803409; CBET-1852379; DMR-1719875
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 37; Journal ID: ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; science & technology; materials science; liquid crystal; blue phase; polymer network; volatile organic compound; optical and structural response; sensor
Citation Formats
Yang, Yu, Kim, Young-Ki, Wang, Xin, Tsuei, Michael, and Abbott, Nicholas L. Structural and Optical Response of Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Films to Volatile Organic Compounds. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsami.0c11138.
Yang, Yu, Kim, Young-Ki, Wang, Xin, Tsuei, Michael, & Abbott, Nicholas L. Structural and Optical Response of Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Films to Volatile Organic Compounds. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c11138
Yang, Yu, Kim, Young-Ki, Wang, Xin, Tsuei, Michael, and Abbott, Nicholas L. Fri .
"Structural and Optical Response of Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Films to Volatile Organic Compounds". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c11138. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1803889.
@article{osti_1803889,
title = {Structural and Optical Response of Polymer-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystal Films to Volatile Organic Compounds},
author = {Yang, Yu and Kim, Young-Ki and Wang, Xin and Tsuei, Michael and Abbott, Nicholas L.},
abstractNote = {Engineering useful mechanical properties into stimuli-responsive soft materials without compromising their responsiveness is, in many cases, an unresolved challenge. For example, polymer networks formed within blue-phase liquid crystals (BPs) have been shown to form mechanically robust films, but the impact of polymer networks on the response of these soft materials to chemical stimuli has not been explored. In this work, we report on the response of polymer-stabilized BPs (PSBPs) to volatile organic compounds (VOCs, using toluene as a model compound) and compare the response to BPs without polymer stabilization and to polymerized nematic and cholesteric phases. We find that PSBPs generate an optical response to toluene vapor (change in reflection intensity under crossed polars) that is sixfold greater in sensitivity than the polymerized nematic or cholesteric phases and with a limit of detection (140 ± 10 ppm at 25 °C) that is relevant to the measurement of permissible exposure limits for humans. Additionally, when compared to BPs that have not been polymerized, PSBPs respond to a broader range of toluene vapor concentrations (5000 vs <1000 ppm) over a wider temperature interval (25–45 vs 45–53 °C). We place these experimental observations into the context of a simple thermodynamic model to explore how the PSBP response reflects the effect of toluene on competing contributions of double-twisted LC cylinders, disclinations, and polymer network to the free energy that controls the PSBP lattice spacing. Overall, we conclude that the mechanical and thermal stability of PSBPs, when combined with their optical responsiveness to toluene, make this class of self-supporting LCs a promising one as the basis of passive and compact (e.g., wearable) sensors for VOCs.},
doi = {10.1021/acsami.0c11138},
journal = {ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces},
number = 37,
volume = 12,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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