Chicago team develops stretchable OLED display

The material, developed at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago and described in Nature Materials, has applications ranging from wearable electronics and health sensors to foldable computer screens. 

“One of the most important components of nearly every consumer electronic we use today is a display, and we’ve combined knowledge from many different fields to create an entirely new display technology,” said Sihong Wang, assistant professor of molecular engineering, who led the research with Juan de Pablo, Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering. 

“This is the class of material you need to finally be able to develop truly flexible screens,” de Pablo said in a statement. “This work is really foundational, and I expect it to allow many technologies that we haven’t even thought of yet.” 

The displays on most high-end smartphones, plus a growing number of televisions, use OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology, which sandwiches small organic molecules between conductors. When an electrical current is switched on, the molecules emit a bright light. The technology is more energy-efficient than LED and LCD displays and delivers sharp pictures, but the molecular building blocks of OLEDs have tight chemical bonds and stiff structures.