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Advances in Luminescent Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Smart and Functional Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 744

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Henan Key Laboratory of Quantum Materials and Quantum Energy, School of Quantum Information Future Technology, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China
Interests: self-healing polymer; stimulus responsive luminescent material; luminescent hydrogel

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Luminescent polymers, a class of materials that emit light through chemical or physical excitation, have emerged as transformative candidates for next-generation technologies. Their tunable optical properties, flexibility, and compatibility with diverse substrates position them at the forefront of innovations in optoelectronics, bioimaging, sensing, and energy-efficient displays. Recent breakthroughs in molecular design, nanostructuring, and hybrid material integration have expanded their functionalities, enabling high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), stimuli-responsive sensors, and biocompatible probes for medical diagnostics. This Special Issue highlights cutting-edge research addressing challenges such as stability, scalability, and environmental sustainability, and includes but is not limited to the development of Luminescent polymer synthesis techniques and corresponding applications.

Dr. Xiaoyong Jia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • luminescent polymers
  • stimuli-responsive
  • self-healing
  • multi-color luminescence
  • luminescent hydrogels

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 5624 KB  
Article
Low Threshold Voltage and Programmable Patterned Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Smart Windows
by Zhichao Ji, Zhenyuan Wang, Hongxu Jin, Xinying Cui, Meijun Liu, Tianzhen Chen, Lei Wang, Haibin Sun, Taoufik Soltani and Xinzheng Zhang
Polymers 2025, 17(18), 2531; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17182531 - 19 Sep 2025
Viewed by 538
Abstract
Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) smart windows hold significant potential for energy-efficient buildings and vehicles, offering a promising pathway toward carbon neutrality. However, their widespread applications are hindered by critical limitations, including high driving voltages and the inability to achieve programmable patterning or multi-region [...] Read more.
Polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) smart windows hold significant potential for energy-efficient buildings and vehicles, offering a promising pathway toward carbon neutrality. However, their widespread applications are hindered by critical limitations, including high driving voltages and the inability to achieve programmable patterning or multi-region addressable control. To address these challenges, we propose a pre-orientation strategy via low-voltage electric field (5 V, 1 kHz), which optimizes liquid crystal molecular alignment during the phase separation process. Vertically aligned liquid crystal molecules in the polymer network with enlarged pore structures reduce anchoring energy barriers for LC molecular reorientation, causing a 61.2% reduction in threshold voltage (Vth) from 20.6 V to 8.0 V. Crucially, a programmable patterned PDLC film is successfully fabricated by utilizing cost-effective photomasks. Due to the different Vth of the corresponding regions, the patterned PDLC film exhibits stepwise control modes of light transmission: patterned scattering state, patterned transparent state and total transparent state, driven by incremental voltages. Our method can achieve not only energy-efficient tunable patterns for esthetic designs (e.g., logos or images) but also a scalable platform for multi-level optical modulation, which will advance PDLC technology toward low-voltage adaptive smart windows and open avenues for intelligent architectures and broadening their application scenarios. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Luminescent Polymers)
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