随着人工智能的快速发展, 开发响应速度快、效率高、制备简单且易加工的智能材料具有重要的意义。近年来, 近红外光(Near-Infrared,NIR)响应液晶纳米智能材料受到研究人员的广泛关注。将具有近红外吸收特性的功能纳米材料与液晶智能材料复合, 制备近红外响应液晶纳米智能材料, 在可穿戴电子设备、仿生器件、软体机器人、生物医学器件等诸多方面都具有潜在应用。本文综述近年来在近红外响应液晶纳米光子晶体与液晶纳米致动器方面的重要研究进展。液晶纳米光子晶体是将功能纳米材料与手性液晶(如胆甾相和蓝相液晶)复合, 在红外光刺激下其结构色能够发生可逆变化; 液晶纳米致动器是将功能纳米材料与交联液晶聚合物复合, 在红外光刺激下智能液晶薄膜能够发生形状变化或宏观运动。最后讨论了近红外光响应液晶纳米智能材料在未来发展和潜在应用中存在的机遇和挑战。

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, it is of great significance to develop intelligent materials with fast response, high efficiency, and simple and easy processing. In recent years, researchers have been very interested in Near-Infrared (NIR) light-responsive intelligent liquid crystal nanocomposites. The marriage of NIR-absorbing nanomaterials with liquid crystals (LCs) can enable LC-based smart materials to respond to light stimuli in the NIR band, which holds promising applications in areas of wearable electronics, biomimetic machines, soft robotics and biomedical devices, etc. Herein, we provide a state-of-the-art account on the recent advancement in LC-based photonic crystals and smart actuators. LC-based photonic crystal is a composite of NIR-absorbing nanomaterials with chiral LCs such as cholesterics and blue phases, so that the photonic materials can respond in the NIR band to produce a structural color change; Nanostructured LC-actuator is a composite of NIR-absorbing nanomaterials with crosslinking liquid crystalline polymers, so that the smart liquid crystalline material can respond in the NIR band to enable a shape change or macroscopic locomotion. This review concludes with a perspective on the opportunities and challenges in the development of NIR light-responsive intelligent liquid crystal nanocomposites and their potential applications.