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Researchers from Drexel University and Seoul National University have created organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that could improve mobile technology displays and enable wearable technology.<\/p>\n
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The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology behind flexible cell phones, curved monitors, and televisions could one day be used to make on-skin sensors that show changes in temperature, blood flow, and pressure in real time. An international collaboration, led by researchers from Seoul National University in the Republic of Korea and Drexel University, has developed a flexible and stretchable OLED that could put the technology on track for this use and a range of new applications.<\/p>\n
\nRecently reported in\u00a0Nature<\/a>, their work improves on existing technology by integrating a flexible, phosphorescent polymer layer and transparent electrodes made from MXene nanomaterial. The result is an OLED that can be stretched to 1.6 times its original size, while maintaining most of its luminescence.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cThis study addresses a longstanding challenge in flexible OLED technology, namely, the durability of its luminescence after repeated mechanical flexion,\u201d said\u00a0Yury Gogotsi, PhD,<\/a>\u00a0Distinguished University and Bach professor in\u00a0Drexel\u2019s College of Engineering<\/a>. \u201cWhile the advances creating flexible light-emitting diodes have been substantial, progress has leveled off in the last decade due to limitations introduced by the transparent conductor layer, limiting their stretchability.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Limits of Flexibility<\/p>\n OLEDs produce light through a process called electroluminescence. When a current is applied to the device, the positive and negative charges shuttling between electrodes \u2014 through an organic polymer layer \u2014 emit light when they unite, forming a particle called an exciton, and settle into an electrical bias stable state. The color of the light can be controlled by varying the chemical composition of the organic layer.\n<\/p>\n Flexible OLEDs, which are produced by depositing the layers on a flexible plastic substrate, can operate while being folded, bent or rolled. First developed in the 1990s, by the 2010s, Samsung had\u00a0integrated the technology<\/a>\u00a0in its shatterproof and flexible devices and curved-edge phones. But it\u00a0became apparent<\/a>\u00a0that the OLED\u2019s pixel brightness and flexibility waned over time, due to the gradual degradation of materials used in its electrodes and organic layer.\n<\/p>\n \u201cImparting conducting materials with flexibility usually involves incorporating an insulating but stretchable polymer that hinders charge transport and, as a result, reduces light emission,\u201d said Danzhen Zhang, PhD, a co-author and postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University, who performed pioneering work on the development of transparent conductive MXene films with tunable properties as a PhD student in Gogotsi\u2019s lab at Drexel. \u201cIn addition, the material most commonly used in electrodes can become brittle and more likely to break the longer the OLED is flexed and stretched. This issue was addressed by using MXene-contact stretchable electrodes, which feature high mechanical robustness and tunable work function, ensuring efficient hole or electron injection.\u201d\n<\/p>\n A Material Solution<\/p>\n To address this design problem, the researchers used a special type of organic layer that chemically coaxes more charge unions, exciton creation, and light production.\n<\/p>\n The material, which the researchers call an exciplex-assisted phosphorescent (ExciPh) layer, is intrinsically stretchable and its chemical composition can alter the energy level of the charges to enable more of them to form excitons and produce light \u2014 like slowing the spin of a merry-go-round to make it easier to jump onto it.\n<\/p>\n The ExciPh material allows more than 57% of excitons to be used to produce light; by comparison, emissive materials adding the polymer layer currently used in OLEDs have only a 12-22% conversation efficiency rate. <\/p>\n The team also added a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer matrix material to improve the stretchability of the layer. And to further enhance the performance of the OLEDs, the researchers developed high-quality, highly conductive, transparent, stretchable electrodes that improve the disbursal of charges into the ExciPh layer.\n<\/p>\n