Organic Photonics and Electronics Group, Department of Physics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Nat Commun. 2012;3:1002. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2002.
The grand vision of manufacturing large-area emissive devices with low-cost roll-to-roll coating methods, akin to how newspapers are produced, appeared with the emergence of the organic light-emitting diode about 20 years ago. Today, small organic light-emitting diode displays are commercially available in smartphones, but the promise of a continuous ambient fabrication has unfortunately not materialized yet, as organic light-emitting diodes invariably depend on the use of one or more time- and energy-consuming process steps under vacuum. Here we report an all-solution-based fabrication of an alternative emissive device, a light-emitting electrochemical cell, using a slot-die roll-coating apparatus. The fabricated flexible sheets exhibit bidirectional and uniform light emission, and feature a fault-tolerant >1-μm-thick active material that is doped in situ during operation. It is notable that the initial preparation of inks, the subsequent coating of the constituent layers and the final device operation all could be executed under ambient air.
大约 20 年前，有机发光二极管（OLED）的出现带来了用低成本的卷对卷涂层方法制造大面积发光器件的宏伟愿景，就像报纸的生产方式一样。如今，小尺寸 OLED 显示器已在智能手机中商业化，但连续环境制造的前景仍未实现，因为 OLED 始终依赖于在真空下使用一个或多个耗时且耗能的工艺步骤。在这里，我们报告了使用狭缝模头辊涂设备制造替代发光器件——发光电化学电池的全溶液法。所制造的柔性片材表现出双向和均匀的发光，并具有容错的 >1μm 厚的活性材料，该活性材料在操作过程中就地掺杂。值得注意的是，油墨的初始制备、组成层的后续涂层以及最终器件操作都可以在环境空气中进行。
