Photoresponsive and Polarization-Sensitive Structural Colors from Cellulose/Liquid Crystal Nanophotonic Structures.

ABSTRACT: Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) possess the ability to form helical periodic structures that generate structural colors. Due to the helicity, such self-assembled cellulose structures preferentially reflect left-handed circularly polarized light of certain colors, while they remain transparent to right-handed circularly polarized light. This study shows that combination with a liquid crystal enables modulation of the optical response to obtain light reflection of both handedness but with reversed spectral profiles. As a result, the nanophotonic systems provide vibrant structural colors that are tunable via the incident light polarization. The results are attributed to the liquid crystal aligning on the CNC/glucose film, to form a birefringent layer that twists the incident light polarization

SUBMITTER: Anusuyadevi PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11468386 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature