Merck aims for solution processable green OLED material by year end

Sara Ver-Bruggen - 02 Mar 2010

Germany-based chemicals company Merck has revealed some early results of its work to develop solution processable OLED materials.

Based on progress of development so far, the company expects in about nine months' time to have developed a green emitter material of comparable performance to vacuum processable products available.

Merck is developing solution processable OLEDs for components in large-area devices such as TVs and lighting panels, to help expand the market for OLED technology.

When Merck acquired organic electronics materials developer Covion in 2005, it gained access to solution processable materials for OLEDs. Since then work on these emitter materials has continued within Merck, but it is the company's participation in a national project that will help boost its work on solution processable OLED materials, so that they perform on par with those vacuum evaporated materials already being exploited in the first generation of lighting panels and other devices.

New Materials for OLEDs from Solutions (NEMO) is a three-year project funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Merck is leading the 11-partner consortium. The initiative, with total budgets of €32 million, ends in July 2012. By then Merck expects to have developed solution processable red and blue emitter materials of comparable performance to vacuum evaporated OLED materials.

Of the three other industrial partners on the project, DELO, based near Munich is working on adhesive and encapsulation materials, HC Starck on polymer anode materials to replace ITO, and Ormecon is working on lifetime issues and alternatives to the light transmission from the emitter to the anode.

In line with materials work, partners will also try them out on printing equipment, including inkjet.

The new materials will expand Merck's OLED materials product portfolio. The company expects its main customers to be companies already working within the emerging OLED industry in lighting and displays.