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Monday, February 14, 2011

#MATERIALS: "Phosphorescence boosts solid-state lighting"

Switching to purely organic phosphorescent emitters could drastically cut the cost of solid-state lighting panels, according to a team of researchers at the University of Michigan. Look for solid-state lighting (SSL) to replace incandescent and even compact fluorescent tubes over the next seven years. R. Colin Johnson @NextGenLog


Organic phosphors developed at the University of Michigan could one day lead to cheaper organic light-emitting diodes. Here, they glow in blue and orange when triggered by ultraviolet light. Credit: Marcin Szczepanski, U-M College of Engineering.

Here is what my EETimes story says about this solid-state lighting breakthrough: A University of Michigan team claims to have found the first example of a purely organic—and thus ultra-cheap—compound that can compete with an metal-doped emitters in terms of brightness and color tuning capability. Unlike fluorescence, a phosphorescent material does not immediately re-emit the radiation it absorbs, but rather continues to glow for up to several hours after the original excitation—a property that has previously been seen only in compounds doped with metals, called organometallics. However, these new metal-free organic compounds developed at the University of Michigan, which appear white in visible light, radiate blue, green, yellow and orange after absorbing ultraviolet light.
Full Text: http://bit.ly/NextGenLog-hRE6