Two-dimensional Functional Minerals for Sustainable Optics
Abstract
Optical device is a key component in our lives and organic liquid crystals are nowadays widely used to reduce human imprint. However, this technology still suffers from relatively high costs, toxicity and other environmental impacts, and cannot fully meet the demand of future sustainable society. Here we describe an alternative approach to colour-tuneable optical devices, which is based on sustainable inorganic liquid crystals derived from two-dimensional mineral materials abundant in nature. The prototypical two-dimensional mineral of vermiculite is massively produced by a green method, possessing size-to-thickness ratios of >103, in-plane magnetisation of >10 emu g-1, and an optical bandgap of >3 eV. These characteristics endow two-dimensional vermiculite with sensitive magneto-birefringence response, which is several orders of magnitude larger than organic counterparts, as well as capability of broad-spectrum modulation. Our finding consequently permits the fabrication of various chromic devices with low or even zero-energy consumption, which can be used for sustainable optics.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2202.07336,
title = {Two-dimensional Functional Minerals for Sustainable Optics},
author = {Ziyang Huang and Tianshu Lan and Lixin Dai and Xueting Zhao and Zhongyue Wang and Zehao Zhang and Bing Li and Jialiang Li and Jingao Liu and Baofu Ding and Andre K. Geim and Hui-Ming Cheng and Bilu Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.07336},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
16 pages, 4 figures