Electroluminescence From Spontaneously-Generated Single Vesicle Aggregates Using Solution-Processed Small Organic Molecules.

Self-assembled aggregates offer great potential for tuning the morphology of organic semiconductors, thereby controlling their size and shape. This is particularly interesting for applications in electroluminescent (EL) devices, but there has been, to date, no reports of a functional EL device in which the size and color of the emissive domains could be controlled using self-assembly. We now report a series of molecules that spontaneously self-organizes into small EL domains of sub-micron dimensions. By tailoring the emissive chromophores in solution, spherical aggregates which have avg. size of 300 nm in diameter and emit any one color, including CIE D65 white, are spontaneously formed in solution. We show that the individual aggregates can be used in EL devices built either using small patterned electrodes or using a sandwich architecture to produce devices emitting in the blue, green, red, and white. Furthermore, sequential deposition of the three primary colors yield an RGB device in which single aggregates of each color are present in close proximity.