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. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)01044-X].