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

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 degrees 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.