Project description
Novel organic phosphors usher in a new era of greener white light
Light-emitting diodes first came on the scene in the 1960s. Very expensive and highly inefficient yet tiny and robust, red LEDs were used as instrument and indicator lights and in digital watches. A more recent development is white LEDs (WLEDs) – the tremendous decrease in cost and increase in efficiency has made them an important replacement for other white light sources in things such as general lighting, automotive lighting and display backlight. However, current WLEDs are based on toxic or scarce inorganic phosphors, and the race is on to find a sustainable alternative. The EU-funded CuMOF-LED project is leading the charge with the development of novel sustainable, non-toxic and highly emissive organic phosphors exploiting high-tech hybrid materials. Scientists plan to demonstrate them in innovative lighting devices, ushering in a new era of greener optoelectronics.
Objective
Current white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) are based on inorganic phosphors, such as CdQDs or rare earth elements. Those are toxic and/or scarce and therefore are considered as a critical aspect towards the sustainable development and use of the WLED technology. Hybrid WLEDs (HWLEDs) based on organic phosphors (OPs), such as coordination complexes, conjugated polymers, laser dyes, etc., are considered as an alternative if the stability and efficiency requirements are met. In this context, OPs based on emitting Ir(III) complexes have recently reached the desired device performance, but they are also considered as scarce material. CuMOF-LED proposes the development of new sustainable, non-toxic, and highly emissive OPs based on Cu(I) complexes-metal organic framework hybrid materials for next generation HWLEDs. Here, highly emissive blueish green Cu(I) complexes will be inserted in highly emissive yellowish orange Zn(II) or Zr(IV) MOFs, leading to a stable host-guest system prepared by either physical diffusion or chemical bonding. Both the host and the guest will be designed to reach high efficiencies and will be in synergy to stabilize each other. These hybrid OPs will be used for the implementation of highly performing HWLEDs, targeting features such as CIE coordinates close to 0.31; 0.31 CRI >90, efficiency >100 lm/W, and color efficiency over 100-500h under mid-power excitations. This multidisciplinary proposal covers a wide range of different fields of science, i.e. organic/coordination chemistry, material science, photophysics, coating fabrication, photo and thermal stability studies, and fabrication/analysis of lighting devices (HWLEDs). CuMOF-LED will open-up new horizons on the field of optoelectronics, with the implementation of sustainable OPs in HLEDs.
Fields of science
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
80333 Muenchen
Germany