Universal Flexible Lamination Encapsulation Strategy toward Underwater-Operation Electroluminescence Devices

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2022 Nov 16;14(45):51175-51182. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c17337. Epub 2022 Nov 6.

Abstract

A reliable encapsulation technology with scalability and flexibility is urgently needed for electroluminescence devices. Here, we developed a simple, robust, low-cost, and scalable flexible lamination encapsulation strategy with quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) as the model devices. Multilayered Parafilm combining with calcium oxide buffer was used for the lamination encapsulation. We successfully demonstrated that such a Parafilm Lami encapsulation (PLE) not only allowed excellent protection for QLEDs in air but endowed QLED outstanding waterproof performance. As a result, highly efficient and stable flexible waterproof QLEDs were realized based on this PLE, exhibiting maximum external quantum efficiency of ∼8% and long half-luminescence lifetime of over 1.5 h in water. We believe that there are not any obstacles to extending this encapsulation technology to other flexible flat-panel devices, such as organic/perovskite light-emitting diodes.

Keywords: Parafilm; calcium oxide; flexible lamination encapsulation; quantum-dot light-emitting diodes; underwater.