Eliot F. Gomez

Exploring the Potential of Nucleic Acid Bases in Organic Light Emitting Diodes.

Naturally occurring biomolecules have increasingly found applications in organic electronics as a low cost, performance-enhancing, environmentally safe alternative. Previous devices, which incorporated DNA in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), resulted in significant improvements in performance. In this work, nucleobases (NBs), constituents of DNA and RNA polymers, are investigated for integration into OLEDs. NB small molecules form excellent thin films by low-temperature evaporation, enabling seamless integration into vacuum deposited OLED fabrication. Thin film properties of adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T), and uracil (U) are investigated. Next, their incorporation as electron-blocking (EBL) and hole-blocking layers (HBL) in phosphorescent OLEDs is explored. NBs affect OLED performance through charge transport control, following their electron affinity trend: G < A < C < T < U. G and A have lower electron affinity (1.8-2.2 eV), blocking electrons but allowing hole transport. C, T, and U have higher electron affinities (2.6-3.0 eV), transporting electrons and blocking hole transport. A-EBL-based OLEDs achieve current and external quantum efficiencies of 52 cd A(-1) and 14.3%, a ca. 50% performance increase over the baseline device with conventional EBL. The combination of enhanced performance, wide diversity of material properties, simplicity of use, and reduced cost indicate the promise of nucleobases for future OLED development.

DNA as an Optical Material

DNA, the beautifully symmetrical “molecule of life,” carries the core genetic blueprint for every living organism. Now, through the emerging field of DNA photonics, it also has the potential to serve as an inexpensive, renewable resource in the development of optical waveguides, organic LEDs and laser structures.

High brightness phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes on transparent and flexible cellulose films

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) were fabricated on flexible and transparent reconstituted cellulose obtained from wood pulp. Cellulose is naturally available, abundant, and biodegradable and offers a unique substrate alternative for the fabrication of flexible OLEDs. Transparent cellulose material was formed by dissolution of cellulose in an organic solvent (dimethyl acetamide) at elevated temperature (165 °C) in the presence of a salt (LiCl). The optical transmission of 40-μm thick transparent cellulose sheet averaged 85% over the visible spectrum. High brightness and high efficiency thin film OLEDs were fabricated on transparent cellulose films using phosphorescent Ir(ppy)3 as the emitter material. The OLEDs achieved current and luminous emission efficiencies as high as 47 cd A(-1) and 20 lm W(-1), respectively, and a maximum brightness of 10,000 cd m(-2).

DNA Bases Thymine and Adenine in Bio-Organic Light Emitting Diodes

We report on the use of nucleic acid bases (NBs) in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). NBs are small molecules that are the basic building blocks of the larger DNA polymer. NBs readily thermally evaporate and integrate well into the vacuum deposited OLED fabrication. Adenine (A) and thymine (T) were deposited as electron-blocking/hole-transport layers (EBL/HTL) that resulted in increases in performance over the reference OLED containing the standard EBL material NPB. A-based OLEDs reached a peak current efficiency and luminance performance of 48 cd/A and 93,000 cd/m2, respectively, while T-based OLEDs had a maximum of 76 cd/A and 132,000 cd/m2. By comparison, the reference OLED yielded 37 cd/A and 113,000 cd/m2. The enhanced performance of T-based devices is attributed to a combination of energy levels and structured surface morphology that causes more efficient and controlled hole current transport to the emitting layer.

Fabrication of natural DNA-containing organic light emitting diodes

The process of creating natural DNA-containing bio-organic light emitting diodes is a fascinating journey from salmon fish to the highly-efficient BiOLED. DNA from salmon sperm is used as a high-performance electron blocking layer, to enhance the efficiency of the BiOLED over its conventional OLED counterpart. An overview of the BiOLED fabrication process and its key steps are presented in this paper.

Latest advances in biomaterials: from deoxyribonucleic acid to nucleobases

This paper is a review of the recent research in bio-based materials for photonics and electronics applications. Materials that we have been working with include: deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based biopolymers and nucleobases. We will highlight work on increasing the ionic conductivity of DNA-based membranes, enhancing the direct (DC) current and photoconductivity of DNA-based biopolymers, crosslinking of DNA-based biopolymers and promising applications for DNA nucleobases. Key

Investigation of DNA nucleobases-thin films for potential application in electronics and photonics

In previous research we have demonstrated improvements in device performance with the incorporation of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based biopolymer into organic light emitting diodes, organic thin film transistors and other organic photonic and electronic devices. Here, we investigate nucleobases, nitrogen-containing biological compounds found within DNA, ribonucleic acid (RNA), nucleotides and nucleosides, for use in a few of those previously investigated photonic and electronic devices. Used as an electron blocking layer in OLEDs, a gate insulator for grapheme transistors and as a dielectric in organic-based capacitors, we have produced comparable results to those using DNA-based biopolymers.

Surface Acoustic Waves to Drive Plant Transpiration

Emerging fields of research in electronic plants (e-plants) and agro-nanotechnology seek to create more advanced control of plants and their products. Electronic/nanotechnology plant systems strive to seamlessly monitor, harvest, or deliver chemical signals to sense or regulate plant physiology in a controlled manner. Since the plant vascular system (xylem/phloem) is the primary pathway used to transport water, nutrients, and chemical signals—as well as the primary vehicle for current e-plant and phtyo-nanotechnology work—we seek to directly control fluid transport in plants using external energy. Surface acoustic waves generated from piezoelectric substrates were directly coupled into rose leaves, thereby causing water to rapidly evaporate in a highly localized manner only at the site in contact with the actuator. From fluorescent imaging, we find that the technique reliably delivers up to 6x more water/solute to the site actuated by acoustic energy as compared to normal plant transpiration rates and 2x more than heat-assisted evaporation. The technique of increasing natural plant transpiration through acoustic energy could be used to deliver biomolecules, agrochemicals, or future electronic materials at high spatiotemporal resolution to targeted areas in the plant; providing better interaction with plant physiology or to realize more sophisticated cyborg systems.

Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes: Exploring the Potential of Nucleic Acid Bases in Organic Light Emitting Diodes (Adv. Mater. 46/2015)

The use of nucleic acid bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil) and DNA polymers in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is discussed by A. J. Steckl and co-workers on page 7552. NB small molecules form excellent thin films by low-temperature evaporation, enabling seamless integration into vacuum-deposited OLED fabrication. NBs affect operation through charge-transport control based on their electron affinity trend: G < A < C < T < U. Appropriate NB selection for electron and hole-blocking results in enhanced OLED performance.

Natural materials for nano bio systems

Many papers have been published on the properties of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and DNAhexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTMA) and their applications in electronics and photonics. This paper is a review of some of the properties and their related applications for other types of naturally occurring materials, nucleic acid bases or nucleobases which make up the DNA molecules. Nucleobases under investigation included guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine. Potential applications include electron blocking layers for organic light emitting diodes, gate dielectrics for organic thin film transistors and protective layers for polymer-based capacitors.