Improving the air stability of flexible top emitting organic light-emitting diodes

Mina Riahi; Kou Yoshida; Ifor David William Samuel

doi:10.1038/s41528-024-00338-8

Improving the air stability of flexible top emitting organic light-emitting diodes

Mina Riahi, Kou Yoshida, Ifor David William Samuel^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are promising light sources for biomedical applications. However, the use of these flexible devices has been restricted by their short shelf lifetimes due to poor ambient stability. Here, the fabrication of a long-lived flexible OLED is reported by replacing air-sensitive metals such as aluminum, and alkali metals used as n dopants, with silver. In addition, to achieve stable and efficient flexible OLEDs we tuned the optical cavity length to the second-order interference maximum. The device design has simple encapsulation and leads to an improvement in the air stability of flexible OLEDs which show a shelf lifetime of greater than 130 days whereas the conventional structure exhibits degradation after only 12 days. The proposed design for making flexible OLEDs demonstrates a great potential for using the devices for wearable bioelectronic applications.

Original language	English
Article number	51
Journal	npj Flexible Electronics
Volume	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41528-024-00338-8
Publication status	Published - 24 Aug 2024

Keywords

Organic LEDs
Polymers

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Riahi_2024_NPJ-FE_Improving-air-stability_CC
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Final published version, 2.17 MBLicence: CC BY

EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-core Grant: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application
Samuel, I. D. W. (PI)
1/08/18 → 31/07/23
Project: Standard

Improving the Air Stability of Flexible Top Emitting Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (dataset)
Riahi, M. (Creator), Yoshida, K. (Creator) & Samuel, I. D. W. (Creator), University of St Andrews, 26 Aug 2024
DOI: 10.17630/9f40322e-44b6-4905-a1d1-86ba2c56ebe0
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title = "Improving the air stability of flexible top emitting organic light-emitting diodes",

abstract = "Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are promising light sources for biomedical applications. However, the use of these flexible devices has been restricted by their short shelf lifetimes due to poor ambient stability. Here, the fabrication of a long-lived flexible OLED is reported by replacing air-sensitive metals such as aluminum, and alkali metals used as n dopants, with silver. In addition, to achieve stable and efficient flexible OLEDs we tuned the optical cavity length to the second-order interference maximum. The device design has simple encapsulation and leads to an improvement in the air stability of flexible OLEDs which show a shelf lifetime of greater than 130 days whereas the conventional structure exhibits degradation after only 12 days. The proposed design for making flexible OLEDs demonstrates a great potential for using the devices for wearable bioelectronic applications.",

keywords = "Organic LEDs, Polymers",

author = "Mina Riahi and Kou Yoshida and Samuel, {Ifor David William}",

note = "Funding: The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant No. EP/R035164/1) for financial support.",

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doi = "10.1038/s41528-024-00338-8",

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T1 - Improving the air stability of flexible top emitting organic light-emitting diodes

AU - Riahi, Mina

AU - Yoshida, Kou

AU - Samuel, Ifor David William

N1 - Funding: The authors are grateful to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant No. EP/R035164/1) for financial support.

PY - 2024/8/24

Y1 - 2024/8/24

N2 - Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are promising light sources for biomedical applications. However, the use of these flexible devices has been restricted by their short shelf lifetimes due to poor ambient stability. Here, the fabrication of a long-lived flexible OLED is reported by replacing air-sensitive metals such as aluminum, and alkali metals used as n dopants, with silver. In addition, to achieve stable and efficient flexible OLEDs we tuned the optical cavity length to the second-order interference maximum. The device design has simple encapsulation and leads to an improvement in the air stability of flexible OLEDs which show a shelf lifetime of greater than 130 days whereas the conventional structure exhibits degradation after only 12 days. The proposed design for making flexible OLEDs demonstrates a great potential for using the devices for wearable bioelectronic applications.

AB - Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are promising light sources for biomedical applications. However, the use of these flexible devices has been restricted by their short shelf lifetimes due to poor ambient stability. Here, the fabrication of a long-lived flexible OLED is reported by replacing air-sensitive metals such as aluminum, and alkali metals used as n dopants, with silver. In addition, to achieve stable and efficient flexible OLEDs we tuned the optical cavity length to the second-order interference maximum. The device design has simple encapsulation and leads to an improvement in the air stability of flexible OLEDs which show a shelf lifetime of greater than 130 days whereas the conventional structure exhibits degradation after only 12 days. The proposed design for making flexible OLEDs demonstrates a great potential for using the devices for wearable bioelectronic applications.

KW - Organic LEDs

KW - Polymers

U2 - 10.1038/s41528-024-00338-8

DO - 10.1038/s41528-024-00338-8

M3 - Article

SN - 2397-4621

VL - 8

JO - npj Flexible Electronics

JF - npj Flexible Electronics

M1 - 51

ER -

Improving the air stability of flexible top emitting organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Keywords

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Projects

EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-core Grant: EPSRC-JSPS Core-to-Core Grant Application

Datasets

Improving the Air Stability of Flexible Top Emitting Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (dataset)

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