Green Syntheses of Efficient Organic Dyes for Organic

Hybrid Light-Emitting Diodes

Presenter: Yunping Huang

Supervisor: Prof. Christine Luscombe

1
Intro: Organic Hybrid LEDs
What is an organic hybrid LED and why is it appealling?
Organic Hybrid LED Uniting the advantages
of LEDs and OLEDs

• Potentially bio-sourced
Organic dye Light down-conversion • Good light quality
• Aesthetics

• High efficiency
Electricity to light conversion
• Inexpensive
405 nm
Inorganic LED 2
Cost of commercial fluorescent dyes
High-performance organic dyes are relatively expensive compared to LED chips.
Fluorescent emitter Phosphorescent emitter TADF emitter

DCJTB F2Irpic DMAC-DPS

$348 / 250 mg $352 / 250 mg $400 / 250 mg

Challenges:
• Relatively long syntheses
• Requiring noble metals (e.g., Ir, Pd, Pt.)
• Using organolithium and Grignard reagents Air-sensitive
3
Prices adopted from Sigma Aldrich or TCI TADF: thermally activated delayed fluorescence
 Low cost by green and streamlined syntheses

Enhance Tuning No hazardous

solubility emission materials
applied
Theobromine, an abundant Enhancing fluorescence and Luminophore of choice
commodity originally found solubility of final product for desired emission
in cacao beans
Green Chem., 2019, 21, 6600-6605.

Organic dye powder

The introduction of theobrominePLQY: 88%
increases the photostability of organic
PLQY: 39%
dyes, because it is electron withdrawing
and decelerates photooxidation.PLQY: 95%
Huang et al. 2021, submitted
Cost estimation based on lab production: $ 2–13 / 250mg
Patent pending. 4
Low cost from low material consumption

Dye-polymer solution
Organic dye powder
Dissolve and blend with
a common polymer

PLQYs around 90%

Theo-Red PLQY: 88%

Solution processing A commercial dye PLQY: 39%

PLQY: 95%
Inorganic phosphor

Dye:polymer ratio 1:100 10:100 20:100 100:100

PLQY: Photoluminescence quantum yield Patent pending. 5
Good color quality
High CRI (Ra) and CFI (Rf) values.

Photoluminescence
1.0 Ra = 90; R9 = 71
Rf = 92; Rg = 104
Normalized Intensity

0.8 This work

0.6

0.4

0.2
Ra = 97; R9 = 95
0.0 Rf = 89; Rg = 101
400 500 600 700 800
Wavelength (nm)
High CRI LED
CRI: Color Rendering Index
CFI: Color Fidelity Index
Huang et al., 2021, submitted. 6
Aesthetics
Solution processed waveguides

Drop casting Blade coating

Organic dye solution

Nanophotonics 2020, 9, 1373.

Inkjet printing Roll-to-roll printing

7
Aesthetics
Different waveguides fabricated via solution processing for different requirements

Before stretching During stretching

Edge-lit device from the glass waveguide
Patent pending. 8
Summary

1. Low-cost and bio-sourced from theobromine

2. Good light quality with high CFI value of 92

3. Stretchable waveguide for non-glare devices

9
Acknowledgements

Contact info:
yunpingh@uw.edu
luscombe@uw.edu

10