posted on 2023-11-06, 13:06authored byFangling Li, Baiqi Song, Richu Luo, Yi Zhou, Rui Xiong, Xiaofang Zhang, Weilin Xu
Flexible photonic textiles constructed by sustainable
cholesteric
organization are very promising to achieve a combination of chiroptical
structural colors, mechanical robustness, sustainability, and environment
stability. However, the efficient assembly of well-ordered cholesteric
nanoarchitectures on flexible textiles in a scalable and patternable
manner remains a grand challenge. In this study, we develop an efficient
and scalable approach to construct large area chiroptical biotextiles
using renewable and bioenabled cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as building
blocks. This hierarchical assembly enables cholesteric photonic CNCs
“cast” in situ, in a seamlessly tessellated
design, onto topography-tailored textiles to form a strong interlocked
multilayered structure. The resulting hierarchical architecture not
only comprises strong photonic-photonic coupling to synergistically
enhance the chiroptical properties with tunable wavelengths but also
leads to impressive mechanical and optical stability against external
mechanical forces and extreme environments. More importantly, through
regulating the localized photonic band of the preformed chiroptical
textiles by small molecules (e.g., water and glucose), customized
colored patterns can be easily generated in large scale that are highly
responsive to multistimuli, including chiral polarized light, view
angle, and solvent. This chiroptical biotextile is a promising next-generation
biomimetic photonic material for defense, aviation, and marine and
aerospace special applications.