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Efficiency breakthrough for radical LEDs

A strategy for using organic free radicals to make light-emitting diodes circumvents the constraints that limit the efficiency with which other organic LEDs convert electric current into light.
  1. Tetsuro Kusamoto

    1. Tetsuro Kusamoto is in the Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.

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  2. Hiroshi Nishihara

    1. Hiroshi Nishihara is in the Department of Chemistry, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.

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Light-emitting devices made from organic materials have the potential to be thin, flexible and lightweight, and might therefore be used in a variety of applications — including foldable display screens, ‘smart’ wallpaper incorporating digital devices, and windows that could be converted into illuminated panels at the flick of a switch. On page 536, Ai et al.1 report the development of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that use free radicals as the emitter and convert electrons into light with high efficiency. The efficiencies of other types of OLED are generally limited by quantum-mechanical effects, but radical-based OLEDs (ROLEDs) don’t have this constraint, owing to the electronic state of the radicals. The authors’ ROLEDs have the highest emission efficiency obtained so far among LEDs that emit light in the deep-red and infrared regions of the electro-magnetic spectrum.

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Nature 563, 480-481 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07394-x

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