Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 1, 2025

Influence of Hybrid Perovskite Fabrication Methods on Film Formation, Electronic Structure, and Solar Cell Performance
Published on: February 27, 2017
Anti-counterfeiting Behaviour of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Silica Film with a Chiral Smectic C Structure
Wei Sun1, Xiaofang Chen1, Yi Li1
1State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Jiangsu Engineering Laboratory of Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Key Laboratory of Polymeric Materials Design and Synthesis for Biomedical Function, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Artificial photonic materials based on chiral liquid-crystalline nanostructures have attracted increasing interests for their wide applications as sensors, anti-counterfeit measures, displays and colour filters. Although the structurally coloured films with chiral nematic structures or blue phases have been prepared, the ones fabricated by fixing chiral smectic C (SmC*) phases have been rarely reported. In this work, organic-inorganic hybrid silica (OIHS) films with a SmC* structure were reported for the first time. An organosilane (CSC) with an enantiotropic SmC* phase was synthesized. The OIHS films with a SmC* structure were fabricated by the polycondensation of CSC under an acidic condition. The colour patterns can be observed in the oblique view, but not be observed in the vertical view, which is mainly due to the light scattering of the nanoparticles on film surface and the selective Bragg reflection of film inside. Therefore, such properties make the OIHS films promising candidates for anti-counterfeiting applications.
Related Concept Videos
Prochirality
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Naming Enantiomers
Stereoisomerism of Cyclic Compounds

