Construction of a Clusteroluminescent Liquid Crystal System With Tunable Properties and Its Application in Information Encryption

ABSTRACT Luminescent liquid crystals (LCs), combining liquid crystalline order and luminescent properties, provide new opportunities for advanced materials. However, the traditional strategy to obtain luminescent LCs is often accompanied by aggregation‐caused quenching, tedious synthesis, environmental hazards, and so on. In this work, we have studied the construction of LCs with clusterization‐triggered emission (CTE) that can address the above issues and further can manipulate LC behavior and clusteroluminescence by host−guest interactions. The liquid crystal mesogen B‐Chol formed a thermotropic LC with CTE character. The birefringence was changed and the chirality was inverted when B‐Chol was protonated to B‐Chol‐H . Interestingly, after complexation with 1,4‐dimethoxypillar[5]arene ( DMP5 ), it changed into a crystalline phase with chirality inversion and CTE enhancement. Importantly, the quenching of clusteroluminescence, the inversion of chirality, and change of birefringence were achieved by adding acid due to the host−guest complexation between DMP5 and B‐Chol‐H . Furthermore, this regulatable clusteroluminescent LC system was successfully applied in the field of information encryption. This combination of clusteroluminescence, liquid crystals, and stimuli‐responsiveness demonstrates the potential of nonconventional luminescent LCs as a promising platform for advanced anticounterfeiting and secure communication.