| Jan 07, 2022 |
Graphene could replace rare metal used in mobile phone screens
(Nanowerk News) Researchers from Paragraf and Queen Mary University of London demonstrated the successful fabrication of an Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) with a monolayer graphene anode, replacing ITO in organic light-emitting diodes (Advanced Optical Materials, "Wafer-Scale Graphene Anodes Replace Indium Tin Oxide in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes").
|
|
Indium is one of the nine rarest elements in the Earth’s crust and is on the EU’s list of critical materials. However, it is widely used, mostly in the form of indium tin oxide (ITO), and a key part of the touch screens on our mobile phones and computers. Most homes will have many items containing indium, it’s used in flatscreen TVs, solar panels, as well as LED lights in our homes.
|
|
This research opens the door to a radical change in the potential of high-tech devices of the future by removing a limiting ingredient, Indium.
|
|
Professor Colin Humphreys of Queen Mary and Paragraf, says: “Because of its importance and scarcity there have been many attempts to replace ITO, but no material has been found to have a comparable performance in an electronic or optical device until now.”
|
|
“Our paper is the first paper in the world to demonstrate that graphene can replace ITO in an electronic/optical device. We have shown that a graphene-OLED has identical performance to an ITO-OLED. ITO-OLEDs are widely used as the touch screens on our mobile phones.”
|
