I-Corps: Stable and efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for applications in horticulture and architectural lighting

I-Corps：稳定高效的有机发光二极管 (OLED)，适用于园艺和建筑照明应用

• 批准号: 2227381
• 负责人: Deirdre O'Carroll
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2227381&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Stable; efficient; organic; light

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the potential development of light sources that may improve indoor plant and crop growth for horticulture applications such as indoor vertical farming and hydroponics. Additionally, the proposed light sources could enhance architectural lighting by providing a more natural spectrum of color. Conventional inorganic semiconductor-based light-emitting diode (LED) devices usually do not have uniform spectral intensity across the visible spectrum. For example, white-light LED light sources used for lighting purposes can have a significant dip in emission intensity in the green part of the spectrum (called the “green gap”). Hence, objects illuminated by these LED lighting sources do not show true colors. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices, on the other hand, can be produced with virtually any emission color with excellent intensity and efficiency in the green and red parts of the spectrum. OLEDs have an emitting layer containing an organic or organometallic material instead of conventional inorganic compound semiconductors. However, one persistent issue with OLEDs is in their blue emission component, which is less stable than red and green. Furthermore, light extraction efficiencies are ~20-50% and have substantial room for improvement. The proposed technology may address both issues by increasing the stability of blue OLED emission and by improved light extract across the visible spectrum. The proposed technology may produce stable light sources based on sustainable, low-process-energy organic semiconductors that have energy efficiencies comparable to traditional LED light sources, but with enhanced spectral qualities.This I-Corps project is based on the potential development of technology to improve the efficiency and stability of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) light sources. OLEDs have improved spectral qualities compared to more traditional inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs); however, their stability and efficiency are not yet optimal for commercial lighting applications. The proposed technology may address the low stability and efficiency of the blue component of light emission from OLEDs. Stable blue emission is necessary for both architectural and horticulture lighting and previous research indicates that the proposed core technology may increase the stability of blue OLEDs by a factor of up to 3.6 compared to existing blue OLEDs. Additionally, the efficiency of white OLEDs is not yet high enough for architectural and some horticulture lighting applications where 1,000 cd/m2 are required routinely. The proposed technology could improve OLED efficiency by increasing light extraction, which may help address the efficiency problem. Nanostructured plasmonic electrodes were designed that enhance the local electric fields at visible electromagnetic wavelengths and may be tuned depending upon the size and shape of the nanostructures. When the plasmon wavelength overlaps with the wavelength of the light-emitting materials in the close vicinity of nanostructures, it may provide faster and more stable light emission. The proposed nanostructured devices using plasmonic electrodes could have comparable electrical behavior to the typical planar metal electrodes but show superior photostability and light extraction efficiency.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是光源的潜在开发，可以改善室内植物和作物生长，用于园艺应用，如室内垂直农业和水培。此外，所提出的光源可以通过提供更自然的颜色光谱来增强建筑照明。常规的基于无机发光二极管（LED）的器件通常在可见光谱上不具有均匀的光谱强度。例如，用于照明目的的白光LED光源在光谱的绿色部分（称为“绿色间隙”）中的发射强度可以具有显著的下降。因此，由这些LED光源照明的物体不会显示真实的颜色。另一方面，有机发光二极管（OLED）器件可以生产为具有几乎任何发射颜色，在光谱的绿色和红色部分具有优异的强度和效率。OLED具有包含有机或有机金属材料而不是常规无机化合物半导体的发光层。 然而，OLED的一个持续存在的问题是其蓝色发射组分，其不如红色和绿色稳定。此外，光提取效率为~20-50%，并且具有显著的改进空间。所提出的技术可以通过增加蓝色OLED发射的稳定性和通过改善整个可见光谱的光提取来解决这两个问题。 该技术可以产生基于可持续的、低工艺能耗的有机半导体的稳定光源，其能源效率与传统LED光源相当，但具有增强的光谱质量。该I-Corps项目基于提高有机发光二极管（OLED）光源效率和稳定性的技术的潜在发展。与更传统的无机发光二极管（LED）相比，OLED具有改善的光谱质量;然而，它们的稳定性和效率对于商业照明应用来说还不是最佳的。所提出的技术可以解决来自OLED的光发射的蓝色分量的低稳定性和效率。稳定的蓝光发射对于建筑和园艺照明都是必要的，先前的研究表明，与现有的蓝光OLED相比，拟议的核心技术可以将蓝光OLED的稳定性提高高达3.6倍。另外，对于通常需要1，000 cd/m2的建筑和一些园艺照明应用，白色OLED的效率还不够高。拟议的技术可以通过增加光提取来提高OLED效率，这可能有助于解决效率问题。纳米结构等离子体电极被设计为增强可见电磁波长下的局部电场，并且可以根据纳米结构的尺寸和形状进行调谐。当等离子体激元波长与紧邻纳米结构的发光材料的波长重叠时，其可以提供更快和更稳定的光发射。使用等离子体电极的纳米结构器件可以具有与典型的平面金属电极相当的电行为，但显示出上级光稳定性和光提取效率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。