Prof. Choi Kyung-Cheol’s Lab developed the washable and wearable display with Prof. Cho Seok-ho(Clothing & Textiles of Chonnam National University).
Conventional fiber-type wearable device requires an external power supply and has low durability because it focused on the implementation of display devices, but Prof Choi’s Lab team used a Polymer Solar Cell(PSC), which converts solar energy into electrical energy, to implement Organic Light Emitting Diode(OLED) display output on the fabric without an external power source.
Also, they devised a special encapsulation film in which an “ALD thin film”(that is excellent in preventing moisture permeation) and polymer functional layer are cross-deposited on a sealing film. This sealing film can protect the interior, unlike conventional sealing film which can easily lose their protective properties to moisture. Through this, Prof. Choi’s Lab team confirmed that there was no big drop in performance(96% PSC and 94% OLED compared to initial) even with wash once a week and some of mechanical stress.
The research was published as a back cover paper in Energy and Environmental Science.
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