Ever struggle to read your phone on a bright, sunny day? The next generation of LEDs could soon make that problem a thing of the past. Perovskite LEDs could usher in a bright new era for displays. They can shine a thousand times brighter than traditional LEDs, as the European Commission reported in 2024.
LED technology has been around since the 1960s. Now, you'll find light-emitting diodes in everything from lights to television screens. Organic LEDs are commonly found in the touchscreens of smartphones. As the name suggests, OLEDs feature a thin, carbon-based semiconductor layer, according to the Department of Energy. While this results in exceptional picture quality, OLEDs have a limited shelf life since organic matter breaks down, and they exhibit limited brightness — hence, the difficulty of seeing your phone screen in broad daylight.
Perovskites are a group of minerals that were discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1839. They take their name from mineralogist Lev Perovski, per the American Chemical Society. Because perovskites absorb light so well, they've been touted for use in solar cells.
Not only are PeLEDs a thousand times brighter, but they're also cheaper and easier to manufacture, as Feng Gao, professor of optoelectronics at Linköping University in Sweden, explained to SciTech Daily. "They can also produce vibrant and intense colors if used in screens. I'd say that this is the next generation of LED technology," he said.
There are, however, significant obstacles in the way of PeLEDs replacing traditional LEDs. Researchers examined 18 different designs to determine a sustainable path to making them commercially viable. One area was the use of toxic materials in production. For example, while small amounts of lead are necessary, there is hope that gold, which is toxic to produce, can be replaced with aluminum, copper, or nickel.
The biggest issue identified was longevity. The best PeLEDs last hundreds of hours, but researchers are seeking a lifetime of 10,000 hours.
"If a product has high technical performance but is expensive and isn't environmentally sustainable, it may not be highly competitive in the market," Muyi Zhang, one of the study's authors, explained. "That mindset will increasingly come to guide our research."
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