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Newsletter issue: June, 2013 |
| DPI related news |
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Colour of OLEDs can now at last be predicted thanks to new modelling technique
OLEDs - thin, light-emitting surfaces - are regarded as the light sources of the future. White OLEDs consist of stacked, ultra-thin layers, each with its own function like emitting a specific light colour, all together resulting in white light. Up to now it has been impossible to predict the exact light colour produced by a white OLED; manufacturers had to rely on trial and error. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology, Philips Research, Dresden University of Technology have now developed a method that allows the colour of light produced by a specific OLED design to be calculated with high precision. They did this by modelling the complex processes in OLEDs on a molecular scale. This technique will allow manufacturers to greatly improve their OLED design processes and reduce the cost. At the same time the energy efficiency and lifetime of OLEDs can be increased. The results were published in the leading scientific journal Nature Materials.
Revolution
It looks as though OLEDs - organic light emitting diodes - will cause a revolution in the world of lighting. OLEDs are light-emitting surfaces, which means that they are visually more attractive than point light sources such as conventional or LED lamps. They can also be flexible and transparent, which opens up all kinds of new opportunities. Plus - and unlike normal LEDs - OLEDs are made of very low-cost materials, of which only very thin layers are needed. As a result, the prices of OLEDs are expected to be low once mass production starts. Nanosecond steps
To predict what kind of light an OLED design will produce, the researchers made computer models of the electronic processes in the OLED at the deepest level. These showed for example the injection of electrical charge, the creation and distribution of the ‘excitons' - pairs of positively charged electrons and holes in a bound state - and the creation from these of individual photons, the light that is emitted. "At first we thought it would never be possible", says researcher Peter Bobbert of Eindhoven University of Technology. The main difficulty was that each change in the electrical charge also influences all the other charges, which makes the simulation extremely complex. But they succeeded by using Monte Carlo simulations with nanosecond steps. The results proved to correspond very well to measurements carried out at Philips on real OLEDs made at Dresden University of Technology. Factor of three
One of the results is that the researchers can now predict where light is produced and lost in the ultra-thin layers. That makes it possible to optimize OLEDs to produce the same amount of light using much less electric power. The researchers expect that the efficiency can still be increased by a factor of three. Manufacturers can also use this new knowledge to design OLEDs with specific colours. They can calculate in advance exactly how thick the different layers need to be, and how much pigment has to be added to the layers. The much shorter and less costly design process will allow the overall development costs to be reduced, leading to lower prices of the final products. "This has already been possible for a long time in the field of micro-electronics, with the ability to precisely predict the behaviour of integrated circuits", says Bobbert. "Now we can do the same with OLEDs." The research was made possible by financial support from the European Union (FP7 project AEVIOM), the Dutch Polymer Institute, NanoNextNL and NanoNed.
The article ‘Molecular-scale simulation of electroluminescence in a multilayer white organic light-emitting diode' was published online by Nature Materials (DOI 10.1038/NMAT3622) on 14 April 2013. The authors are Murat Mesta1, Marco Carvelli1,2,3, Rein J. de Vries1,2,3, Harm van Eersel1,2, Jeroen J.M. van der Holst1, Matthias Schober4, Mauro Furno4, Björn Lüssem4, Karl Leo4, Peter Loebl5, Reinder Coehoorn1,2 and Peter Bobbert1.
1) Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics
2) Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven
3) Dutch Polymer Institute, Eindhoven
4) Dresden University of Technology, Institut für Angewandte Photophysik
5) Philips Research Aachen, Aachen
Annual Report 2012
A few weeks ago DPI published its annual report for 2012 entitled ‘New Horizons’, reflecting the institute’s expanding internationalisation and the new challenges and opportunities it faces. The report contains key figures for the institute and a review of DPI’s current activities .
Click here to read the Annual Report.
If you would like to receive a hard copy, please send an e-mail to communications@polymers.nl
Annual Meeting in November
This year’s Annual Meeting will be held on 5 November at conference hotel Papendal in Arnhem. As you may already know, the format of the Annual Meeting will be different than in previous years. This year, we are combining the Annual Meeting with all the Technology Area review meetings and Programme Committee meetings. The result is a three-day programme on 4-6 November 2013.
The event will open on Monday 4 November with the Young DPI meeting, which is intended for all researchers who have started working on a project in the past academic year. At the same time, the meeting of the Council of Participants and the Corporate Technology review meetings will be held. In the evening there will be a joint dinner.
Proceedings on Tuesday 5 November will start with the review meetings for all Technology Areas. The plenary Annual Meeting will be held in the afternoon, followed by the conference dinner in the evening.
The review meetings will continue in the morning of Wednesday 6 November. The length of the review meetings will depend on the number of presentations in each technology area. Afterwards, there will be an opportunity to visit the Polymer Innovation Day.
The Polymer Innovation Day is being jointly organised by DPI Value Centre and DPI and will focus on collaboration between SMEs, start-ups and multinationals in innovation in relation to polymers. The theme of this year’s meeting is: ‘How can polymers work for you’.
Further details will be provided in the invitations for the meetings that will be sent to you in September.
Dutch Polymer Institute to present DPI Invention Award
The Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) will present the DPI Invention Award for the fourth time at the European Polymer Congress 2013 in Pisa, Italy. The award is granted to a researcher who has made a significant contribution to the development of polymer research and technology in Europe and enabled scientific knowledge to be quickly converted into industrial applications.
This year’s winner is Dr. Rob Duchateau, who is being recognised for his scientific output in the last few years and for his application of fundamental knowledge as a catalyst for various polymer processes and properties. The organisers of the European Polymer Congress and DPI are devoting a special session to the award ceremony from 9.15 a.m. until midday on Thursday 20 June. The session will feature three lectures by academics working in the same field as the award winner, as well as a lecture by Dr. Duchateau himself.
DPI Invention Award
The DPI Invention Award is presented on a biennial basis to a researcher from the DPI network in order to stress the importance of inventions. The most important criteria in selecting the winner of the award are the number of inventions in combination with their scientific level and industrial relevance. Previous winners of the award were Professor D.J. Broer and Dr. C.W.M. Bastiaansen (2007), Professor U.S. Schubert (2009) and Professor Cor Koning (2011).
Nurturing Open Innovation
Peter Bobbert is a researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology and has spent years researching the modelling of OLEDs. Together with colleagues from other research institutes and large companies, he is currently developing new models for calculating very precisely how much light an OLED design will produce (see the article earlier in this newsletter). “I had carried out various projects that were mainly concerned with the theoretical aspects. When I started developing software, together with undergraduates and PhD students, I was regularly struggling to make any progress. I started the first project with Reinder Coehoorn from Philips and with the support of DPI about eight years ago. DPI has been a constant factor throughout the years by arranging funding for a number of projects. Furthermore, DPI has always known how to bring together parties from different fields,” says Bobbert. “DPI and Open Innovation form a perfect marriage,” he goes on. The Open Innovation trend has led to close collaboration between business and universities in our community. For years DPI has been bringing together parties with knowledge of polymers from all around the world. It seems to me, however, that companies have started to adopt shorter horizons and I see that as a threat to open innovation. We must continue to nurture open innovation if we are to continue making breakthroughs in the future.”
Most of the articles in Nature Materials are written – exclusively – by academic researchers. This study also involved researchers from industry. Bobbert: “Theoreticians do not always find it easy to work with representatives from industry. During this research, the industrial partners have focused mainly on conducting experiments, while we concentrated on modelling. However, we were all engaged in research that could have a major impact on people’s daily lives and that creates a bond.”
PhD theses of DPI researchers (February - June)
Performance Polymers
Structure-property relationships of rubber/silica nanocomposites via sol-gel reaction, Elena Miloskovska
Functional Polymer Systems
Non-specific protein-surface interactions in the context of particle-based biosensors, Marijn Kemper
Molecular-dynamics simulations of polymeric surfaces for biomolecular applications, Stela Andrea Muntean
New researchers
The following researchers have recently started a DPI project:
Polyolefins
Luca Rongo
Antonio Vittoria
Aaron José Cancelas Sanz
Enrico Troisi
Performance Polymers
Nadia Vleugels
Claudia Pörschke
Thomas Zosel
Functional Polymer Systems
Merve Cetintas
Irene Votta
Danqing Liu
Bio-Inspired Polymers
Hao Liu
Large-Area Thin-Film Electronics
Charley Schaefer
Agenda
24 – 28 June: Cosi 2013
6 – 13 July: Nanotexnology 2013
15 – 19 July: PPS 29
21 – 27: ICCE-21
3 – 7 September: ECME 2013
For more information about these events and other external events, please see our website: www.polymers.nl
For the internal meetings please see the DPI intranet.
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| General polymer news |
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Low-cost plastic memories from a ‘forgotten’ commodity polymer
Scientists from the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen and the German Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have discovered a way to make a plastic memory from a commodity polymer. They have published details of their discovery in the journal Nature Materials.
The polymer they used is polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), an inexpensive material that is often used for membrane filters and packaging foils. It is well known that PVDF is thermally and chemically extremely stable, but for application in a memory cell a material must possess ferroelectric properties. In other words, the material must exhibit an electric polarisation, comparable to the north and south poles of a magnet. The polarisation of ferroelectric materials can be switched by applying of an electric field. The bistable polarization state can be used to store information.
Making a functional electric switch from neat PVDF is notoriously difficult. ‘There are two reasons for this’, says professor of physics Dago de Leeuw, one of the authors of the Nature Materials article. ‘First, it was very challenging to make a smooth, thin film from PVDF.’ Comprising films were rough, resembling microscopic sandpaper. ‘In addition, conventional processing yields non-ferroelectric thin films because the PVDF crystallises in a non-polar phase.’
Click here to read more.
DSM opens application development technical center in Yokohama, Japan
Faster response to customers’ needs and further contribution to sustainability
DSM opened its first application development technical center for engineering plastics in Japan on 26 March 2013 at the Yokohama Business Park in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The launch of the DSM Engineering Plastics Japan Technical Center is fully in line with DSM’s strategy of supporting and growing business not only with customers in Japan but also with overseas Japanese Transplants, for which material specifications are determined in Japan. DSM recognises the importance of jointly developing new, innovative and more sustainable applications with its customers in Japan.
The new technical center will enable DSM to provide fast and specific test data for its products and collaborate more closely with new and existing customers.
Click here to read more.
Bioplastics: China's unrealised potential
Despite being the largest consumer of plastics in the world, China’s bioplastics potential is woefully neglected, according to one of the speakers at the Renewable Plastics conference held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in April.
Bruno Rudnik, managing owner of SusTech Consult, a consulting firm based in Munich, Germany, which promotes clean-tech solutions in emerging markets, said that far too many plastics processing firms in China have no involvement with bioplastics.
Comparing China with Thailand, one of the world’s leaders when it comes to bioplastics, Rudnik said: “China is the number one plastics consumer but still has a very small bioplastics market, even though it is twenty times the size of Thailand in terms of population, has a greater GDP and chemical demand is 50 times greater.”
Click here to read more.
Lanxess taps Hong Kong for new plastics development center
German specialty chemicals and plastics maker Lanxess AG announced on 18 April that it had opened an application development center for plastics in Hong Kong's Science and Technology Park.
The center will serve as a hub for application development in the Asia-Pacific region and India for the company's High Performance Materials business unit and will complement its existing research and development center in Wuxi, Jiangsu province.
The company, based in Leverkusen, Germany, said it hoped the center would help it better target automotive industry applications such as light weighting.
Click here to read more.
Bayer MaterialScience inaugurates Asia-Pacific innovation hub in Shanghai
Bayer MaterialScience AG (BMS) has officially inaugurated its Asia-Pacific regional innovation hub at the Polymer Research & Development Center in Shanghai.
BMS said the hub is based on Bayer's global standards for its polyurethane, polycarbonates and coatings businesses. The company plans to develop ideas, together with its customers, for the use of high-performance foams and coatings in sectors such as mobility, construction, IT and renewable energy.
"Our regional innovation hub will become a significant contributor to our overall global innovation network," said Patrick Thomas, CEO of Bayer MaterialScience, in a press release issued on 21 May.
Click here to read more.
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DPI Value Centre: Innovation in polymers
In 2007 DPI started the DPI Value Centre. The DPI Value Centre is an independent foundation supporting companies with their innovations in the field of polymers. With the support of our network of partners in the manufacturing industry and the research community (multinationals, SMEs and knowledge institutes), we can work in finding solutions to topics. Our experts can provide advice on polymers, but also on a wide range of other disciplines, from product and process development to marketing, patents, finance and grants. Thanks to our close ties with DPI we are constantly aware of opportunities in the polymer sector.
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Dutch Polymer Institute
P.O. Box 902, 5600 AX EINDHOVEN The Netherlands T +31 40 247 5629 www.polymers.nl LinkedIn: LI-group DPI
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