Will long-living light-emitting electrochemical cells end the LED era?
LECs are simpler devices than light emitting diodes (LEDs) and comprise one layer of active material that can be solution-processed in ambient conditions.
LEDs have the disadvantage that the devices are complex and multilayered and they require high-vacuum and high temperature techniques for their preparation. LEDs also need to be rigorously protected from exposure to air or water.
To date, LEC devices have had relatively short lifetimes which have precluded serious commercial investigation. The Basel and Valencia research teams, which were led by Basel professors Catherine E. Housecroft and Edwin C. Constable, have demonstrated that devices with lifetimes exceeding 2500 hours can now be prepared using molecular components stabilized by aromatic rings. The team has built metal complexes decorated with rings that arrange themselves to form a shell around the molecule.
“It is a little bit like a flower closing up at night – the flat, petal-like rings fold up about the metal to make a compact and robust structure,” explained
Constable. The supramolecular interactions make the complexes exceptionally stable while molecular tuning of the components allows a tuning of the color of light
emitted, bringing the goal of white-light emitting devices one step closer.
The development of next generation lighting technologies has been reported in the journal ‘Chemical Science’.
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