Super Organic Tunable and White-Light Emitting Diode (OLED) by a Natural Chromophore Separation Matrix

The Technology
A bio-organic framework of mucin, controlling electronic interactions between two or more energetically interacting materials, is presented. The hydrophilic mucins act as a host material for introduced nano-sized hydrophobic dyes. These can be combined in any proportion to generate photo-luminescent emitters fully tunable to any visible wavelength. The technology can provide a process for efficient and low-cost production of coatings with photo-luminescent properties.
Mucins are derived from a variety of bio sources, such as bovines or ovines. We have developed a proprietary method for extracting mucins from jellyfish and are able to fabricate a homogenous photo-luminescent coating capable of controlling the emitted wavelength to any RGB combination.

Fluorescent solutions: (From left to right) Bovine submaxillary mucin with compounds 3, 2, 1, RGB post-mixed (white), and RGB dyes in DMSO solution (blue-green).

The Need
The creation of white light from a single component is extremely difficult. White light emission is usually achieved by employing a mix of the three primary dyes which emit in red, green and blue. However, proximate color elements may undergo electronic interaction leading to a change in the sought optical profile. Methods to reduce this electronic interaction include creation of multilayers of dyes in which each layer is comprised of single type of dye and synthesis of an inorganic separating matrix material. While the inorganic matrix systems are leading the technology for flexible, processable and low-cost devices, their fabrication process is highly affected by a variety of factors like humidity, temperature and concentration. Thus, organic-based devices are currently the focus of innovation in display technology.

Advantages

• Low power consumption, low-cost fabrication.
• Organic LEDs are lightweight, can be made in thin, flexible, and transparent forms, provide high contrast, and high lateral resolution.
• Can be used in silicon integrated circuits and high-performance micro-display systems.
• The lifetime span of our OLED's are currently 20,000 hrs., sufficient for small portable electronic devices.
• A competing technology is the phosphorous coatings. Phosphorous is an environmentally unfriendly material, is limited in its worldwide availability and suffers from lack of homogeneity.

Project Status
A range of photo-luminescent colors have been demonstrated, the mucin extraction method is well defined.

Patents
US patent pending

Supporting Publications
Efficient Separation of Dyes by Mucin: Toward Bioinspired White‐Luminescent Devices, N Hendler, B Belgorodsky, ED Mentovich, M Gozin, S Richter; Advanced Materials 23 (37), 4261-4264 (2011)

Project manager

Rona Samler
VP, BD Physical Science, Medical Device, Chemistry

Project researchers

Shachar Richter
T.A.U Tel Aviv University, Exact Sciences
School of Chemistry

Michael Gozin
T.A.U Tel Aviv University, Exact Sciences
School of Chemistry