Color Collective: Polymer self-assembles into light-emitting film
In the past year or so, organic light-emitting diodes have appeared in a handful of products, such as the tiny screens in some cell phones and digital cameras. Manufacturing large and long-lasting flexible displays for computer screens and flat-panel televisions, however, is expected to require new and improved organic materials.
To create displays that are more efficient and more luminescent than existing technologies based on organic substances, researchers are turning to organic molecules that self-assemble into cell membrane–like structures. Samuel Stupp and his colleagues at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., have now devised a way to enhance the electronic and optical properties of a polymer that is widely used for making organic light-emitting diodes.