Researchers have developed a highly flexible and stretchable digital display material that emits a fluorescent pattern. The material, which can bend in half and stretch to more than twice its original length, has potential applications in wearable electronics, health sensors, and foldable computer s
creens. This new class of material was created by combining knowledge from various fields, such as atomic models of new polymers and thermally activated delayed fluorescence, allowing for highly efficient light emission. The researchers are working on further developments, including additional colors and improved efficiency and performance.
“This is the class of material you need to finally be able to develop truly flexible screens,” added de Pablo. “This work is really foundational and I expect it to allow many technologies that we haven’t even thought of yet.”The displays on most high-end smartphones, as well as a growing number of televisions, use OLED technology, which sandwiches small organic molecules between conductors. When an electrical current is switched on, the small molecules emit a bright light.
“We have been able to develop atomic models of the new polymers of interest and, with these models, we simulated what happens to these molecules when you pull on them and try to bend them,” explained de Pablo. “Now that we understand these properties at a molecular level, we have a framework to engineer new materials where flexibility and luminescence are optimized.”
A key feature in their design was the use of “thermally activated delayed fluorescence,” which let the materials convert electrical energy into light, in a highly efficient way. This third-generation mechanism for organic emitters can provide materials with performance on par with commercial OLED technologies.stretchable neuromorphic computing chips
Wang said a bendable light-up material also could, eventually, be integrated into implantable devices, such as those that use light to control the activity of neurons in the brain .—“My overall dream is to make all the essential components for a full system of wearable electronics, from sensing to processing to displaying information,” Wang explained. “Having this stretchable light-emitting material is another step toward that dream.
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