Tunable pure interference colors of 2D titania liquid crystal with ultrasensitive electroresponse
Rui Gong, Siyuan Tian, Yukun Lei, Zehao Zhang, Youan Xu, Rong Lyu, Feng Wang, Hao Zhang, Ziyang Huang, Caizhen Zhu, Bilu Liu, Baofu Ding
Abstract
Electrochromic effect refers to the electrically tunable coloration of a matter. Emerging see-through color-tunable applications pose a synergetic demand on electrochromic device, concurrently having ultralow field driving, operation in transmissive mode, and high-purity and tunable interference colors of sci-fi perception. However, such an electrochromic device remains elusive. Herein, we invent a transmissive electro-interference-color device based on two-dimensional titania liquid crystals (2D TiO 2 LCs), demonstrating a record-high electroresponse sensitivity of ~1.5 × 10 −7 square meters per square volt among all wide-bandgap media. Consequently, the device works under an electric field of 6 × 10 3 volts per meter (three orders of magnitude lower than that of conventional LCs), operates in a transmissive mode with ~85% transparency, and displays pure and tunable interference colors. The electro-interference-color device serves as a good example to fabricate diverse see-through chromatic applications as conceptually demonstrated smart windows with functions of privacy protection, energy saving, and artistic presentation as well as transparent display.