Light-Emitting\nPolymer Blended with Elastomers for\nStretchable Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes

Abstract

Intrinsically stretchable light-emitting diodes (LEDs)\nwill be\ncritical components in future stretchable electronics. However, limited\nresearch has been conducted on stretchable electroluminescent (EL)\nlayers for LED devices. Blending conjugated polymers (CPs) with an\nelastomer has been a simple and effective method enabling widespread\nuse of stretchable polymer semiconductors in stretchable field-effect\ntransistors (FETs). In this study, we adopted the concept of blending\nelastomers into CPs for use in stretchable polymer LEDs (PLEDs). By\nblending light-emitting polymers prepared from polyphenylenevinylene\n(PPV) derivatives with thermoplastic polystyrene-<i>block</i>-polybutadiene-<i>block</i>-polystyrene (SBS) elastomers,\na stretchable emission layer (EML) was fabricated, and its mechanical,\nelectrical, and morphological properties were studied. The blended\nfilm was stretched up to 60% before vertical cracking occurred, and\nit maintained its pristine electrical properties. Finally, stretchable\nPLEDs were fabricated with the use of stretchable EMLs, and this showed\nthat 50% of the maximum luminance was maintained upon stretching up\nto 60%.