Environmental issues

The Fraunhofer Institute is working on alternative light sources for photo therapy, and Flexible OLED technology is prime candidate because it is light weight, can be flexed and does not produce almost any heat (unlike LED-based lighting).

Before flexible OLEDs are actually used in such treatment, though, it is important to know if OLEDs carry any potential toxic risks. The Fraunhofer FEP performed an initial study on in vitro cell cultures afflicted by defined damage. The researchers used flexible 10x10 cm green OLEDs, and found that the OLEDs positively stimulated the damaged cells, as expected. The tests showed now cytotoxity in the material systems, including when the OLEDs were bent (this increases the chance of material leakage from the OLEDs).

Earlier this month, we reported that Taiwan's WiseChip is entering the OLED lighting market with plans to produce candle-light emitting OLEDs using technology developed at Taiwan's National Tsing-Hua University.

Wisechip already started to produce sample panels, and the first ones were setup in an aboriginal village as street lights - embedded inside a bee-hive like mask taken from rotten wood. This tribe, Tai-Yah (also called Atayal), has been without electricty until 1979 (they were known as the "dark tribe"), and currently the use CFL street lights, but rejected a suggestion by the government to install LED lights.

A team of researchers from North Carolina State University have launched a new crowd funding project at Experiment.com, trying to raise a small amount of money ($400 to $800) to begin a new research that potentially may have implications for OLED applications, as they may enable simple and environmentally friendly OLED emitters.

The researchers developed a new method to form carbon-carbon bonds, which include the formation of spirocyclic carbon centers. Those kinds of molecules have been shown by others to be potentially useful as OLED materials but are difficult to synthesize in bulk, and this research hopes to solve this issue.

The Fast2Light project aims to develop novel, cost-effective, high-throughput, roll-to-roll, large area deposition processes for fabricating P-OLEDs for lighting. The project also aims to minimize the potential environmental impact at this product design stage, as well as analyse in depth the repercussions throughout the life cycle, including the end of useful life stage.

Spain's Gaiker-I4K announced a research activity as part of Fast2Light that will study the identification, development and adaptation of innovative treatment processes for OLED, taking into account both mechanical and chemical recycling technologies. Gaiker-I4K will also carry out a life cycle analysis of the OLEDs developed during the project. The research will be concluded in August 2011.