Manipulation of photoresponsive liquid-crystalline polymers and their applications: from nanoscale and to macroscale

Abstract

As one kind of smart material, photoresponsive liquid-crystalline polymers exhibit interestingly tunable properties from nanoscale to macroscale, which is attributed to their combination of liquid crystal ordering and photo-switchable features. Azobenzene-containing liquid-crystalline polymer is a typical representative, which has been studied from many different aspects. However, the lack of researches on structure-performance relationship and multi-scale manipulation has limited its applications in a broader field. Over the past few years, great efforts have been devoted to achieving the control at multiple scales using light, which has promoted their applications in the fields of energy storage, advanced anticounterfeiting and switchable adhesion. Here, we summarize recent progress in photoresponsive liquid-crystalline polymers, including molecular design, fabrication techniques and manipulation mechanism from nanoscale to micrometre scale and then macroscale. Their various applications based on abundant photoresponsive properties are also introduced. Finally, the existing challenges and opportunities in this field are discussed.