Thermochromic Multicolored Photonic Coatings with Light Polarization- and Structural Color-Dependent Changes

Both temperature-responsive and patterned photonic coatings are receiving a lot of attention from a fundamental and application point of view. However, the fabrication of multicolor patterns, which are also temperature-responsive, remains challenging. The current work presents a thermochromic photonic coating with light polarization-dependent multiple structural colors from a polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal siloxane oligomer. It is found that the structural color and the temperature response can be manipulated by varying the polymerization temperature, allowing the fabrication of thermochromic multicolor patterns. During heating, each color starts shifting at a different temperature until the sample is entirely blue at a high temperature. Upon cooling, the multicolor pattern returns, showing that the thermochromic response is reversible. On top of that, linearly polarized light dependency is also obtained, showing different reflection colors when varying the incident light polarization angles. A multicolor, thermochromic photonic coating with light polarization- and structural color-dependent features is fabricated for demonstration.