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A colour-tunable, weavable fibre-shaped polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 233–238 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

The emergence of wearable electronics and optoelectronics requires the development of devices that are not only highly flexible but can also be woven into textiles to offer a truly integrated solution. Here, we report a colour-tunable, weavable fibre-shaped polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell (PLEC). The fibre-shaped PLEC is fabricated using all-solution-based processes that can be scaled up for practical applications. The design has a coaxial structure comprising a modified metal wire cathode and a conducting aligned carbon nanotube sheet anode, with an electroluminescent polymer layer sandwiched between them. The fibre shape offers unique and promising advantages. For example, the luminance is independent of viewing angle, the fibre-shaped PLEC can provide a variety of different and tunable colours, it is lightweight, flexible and wearable, and it can potentially be woven into light-emitting clothes for the creation of smart fabrics.

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Figure 1: Schematic illustration of the preparation and structural characterization of the PLEC.
Figure 2: Characterization of a fibre-shaped PLEC.
Figure 3: Integrated PLEC fibres and textiles.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2011CB932503), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21225417, 61136003), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (12nm0503200), the Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation, the Program for Special Appointments of Professors at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning and the Program for Outstanding Young Scholars from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Macromolecular Science and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Collaborative Innovation Center of Polymers and Polymer Composite Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200438, China

    Zhitao Zhang, Yiming Li, Xueyi Li, Guozhen Guan, Houpu Li, Yongfeng Luo, Fangyuan Zhao & Huisheng Peng

  2. Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Application, Ministry of Education, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Kunping Guo, Qi Zhang & Bin Wei

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, California, USA

    Qibing Pei

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  1. Zhitao Zhang
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Contributions

Z.Z., Q.P. and H.P. discussed and designed the experiment. K.G. carried out the performance tests. Y.L., X.L., G.G., H.L., Y.L., F.Z., Q.Z., B.W. and H.P. participated in materials synthesis, device fabrication and data processing. Z.Z. and H.P. wrote the paper. H.P. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Huisheng Peng.

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Zhang, Z., Guo, K., Li, Y. et al. A colour-tunable, weavable fibre-shaped polymer light-emitting electrochemical cell. Nature Photon 9, 233–238 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.37

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