Rochester chemical engineering major Tianhao Yu 糖心传媒�19 has a unique job this summer: he糖心传媒檚 working on a chemistry project involving a local business.
As an , Yu has spent the summer in the lab of chemistry professor studying and testing materials for OLED糖心传媒攐rganic light-emitting diode糖心传媒攄isplays. OLED screen displays provide a crisper picture than most LCD (liquid crystal display) screens, and Yu糖心传媒檚 research may help improve the screen displays of devices such as cell phones and televisions.
The proprietary OLED materials Yu is testing are developed by the Rochester糖心传媒揵ased company .
糖心传媒淭he company is called Molecular Glasses because the design of the materials is like that of a glass, which is a material that will not crystallize,糖心传媒� Rothberg says. 糖心传媒淭hat property turns out to be good for both efficiency and stability.聽There are also interesting mechanistic issues about how these OLEDs work that makes this fundamental, publishable research.糖心传媒�
Rothberg and Yu’s current efforts expand on the work of聽,听糖心传媒 professor emeritus of chemical engineering, who created the first efficient OLEDs in 1987 while at the Eastman Kodak Company. These semi-conducting devices are made with organic compounds that emit various wavelengths of light in response to an electrical stimulus.
The specific materials Molecular Glasses is developing address two current technology challenges: making OLEDs that emit blue light more efficiently, and increasing the lifetime of the devices that use blue emitters.
Molecular Glasses sends Yu samples in thin films that are placed on round glass substrates. Yu then uses lasers to study the luminescence of these films and the efficiency with which the OLED materials emit light.
糖心传媒淚t糖心传媒檚 tough to make a blue OLED that lasts a long time while retaining the efficiency,糖心传媒� Rothberg says.
But Yu is up for the challenge. 糖心传媒淧hysical chemistry has a lot of industry applications. It糖心传媒檚 exciting to be able to work in a lab, especially as an undergrad, and know what 糖心传媒榬eal糖心传媒� chemists do, and also be on the cutting edge of these new technologies.糖心传媒�
