Project R-14053

Innovative all-organic chiral emitters for circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes (Research)

Over the last decade, electroluminescence from organic chromophores has evolved into a flourishing industry. Fundamental materials and device research efforts have been key to this commercial success. Most recent endeavors aim at triplet leveraging without the use of (toxic) heavy metals to afford more efficient and sustainable organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). When applying chiral organic emitters, circularly polarized (CP) electroluminescence can be achieved, with exciting prospects for 3D displays, optical data storage, and optical spintronics. However, this field is still in its infancy and the development of efficient all-organic chiral emitters and devices thereof comes with considerable scientific challenges. In this project, these fundamental challenges are tackled by judicious - computationally guided - design and synthesis of innovative chiral chromophores with enhanced luminescence dissymmetry factors. All novel fluorophores will be thoroughly characterized from a structural and photophysical/chiroptical point of view and then implemented in state-of-the-art CP-OLEDs to afford detailed structure-property relations. A strong and complementary UHasselt team is gathered to support this Ph.D. project, nicely covering the different types of expertise needed to face these challenges with confidence. As such, we aim at a substantial materials science contribution to the emergence of CP electroluminescence for high-end applications.

01 November 2023 - 31 October 2027