Visible and Ultraviolet Light Emitting Electrochemical Cells Realised on Woven Textiles

Abstract

Spray coated organic light emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) have been fabricated on a standard woven polyester cotton textile for wearable display applications. The textile is first pre-smoothed by screen printing an ultra-violet (UV) curable polyurethane layer, termed an interface layer, before fully spray coating the functional device. The spray coating technique was then used to fabricate the flexible OLECs on the textile. The textile devices were then encapsulated prior to testing in an ambient environment. Commercially available yellow emitting polymer and a UV emitting small molecules have been utilised as LEC active layers. Fully functional yellow coloured OLECs have been achieved on the woven textile substrate. Preliminary results with the UV emission molecule have demonstrated its solubility for solution processing and shown UV emission via photoluminescence induced by laser excitation, offering the potential to migrate to textile to realise UV OLECs.

Keywords

• light emitting textile
• e-textiles
• light emitting electrochemical cells (LEC), light emission