Polymer gel light-emitting devices

Polymers can be processed into several forms such as solid films, solutions, and gels. Traditional conjugated polymer electroluminescent devices are thin film, solid-state devices consisting of a thin polymer film sandwiched between two electrodes. Recently, a light-emitting device based on polymer solutions has been demonstrated. In this letter, we report the generation of luminescence from a polymer gel in a compact cell configuration. This unique polymer gel light-emitting device (GLED) consists of a thin layer of a polymer gel sandwiched between two electrode/glass substrates. The emission spectrum is consistent with the photoluminescence spectrum obtained from the polymer gel. The device shows an operating mechanism similar to the electrogenerated chemiluminescence.