High-throughput printing of customized structural-color graphics with circularly polarized reflection and mechanochromic response

Arbitrary patterning of chiral structural-color materials on various substrates in a robust, scalable, and customized way is of paramount importance for smart camouflage, wearable displays, and flexible electronics. Here, we report a general strategy for high-throughput printing of chiral structural-color graphics with high brightness and color saturation on diverse target substrates. Solution-processable polymerizable chiral liquid crystal (CLC) inks are judiciously designed and synthesized to enable satisfactory printing rheology and high-quality chiral structural colors. Evaporation-induced self-assembly dynamics of the CLC inks are microscopically observed and elucidated, high-resolution and multicolored circularly polarized photonic graphics are facilely printed on different substrates, and mechanochromic photonic elastomers with tailorable multicolored patterns are developed by printing CLC inks onto highly stretchable elastomeric films. Importantly, mechanochromic photonic patterns printed on stretchable electronic textiles provide an avenue for the development of interactively stretchable electronics that can adaptively visualize and sense mechanical stimuli via optical and electrical dual-signal feedback.