Chemistry professor’s blue emitters for OLEDs offer high school student cutting-edge collegiate research experience

UMSL Daily

Graduate student Steven Skaggs (at left), STARS student Preston Willis (center) and Associate Professor Janet Wilking demonstrate the fluorescent property of the silicon and germanium compounds they synthesize in Wilking’s chemistry lab at UMSL. The compounds can be used in OLEDs, known for lighting screens of electronic devices. Blue OLEDs are particularly interesting for their tendency to not last as long, a problem Wilking and her research students are solving by creating stronger, more stable blue-emitting molecules. (Photos by August Jennewein)
The bright blue substance glowing from the vials in Janet Wilking’s laboratory could one day help light the screen of your electronic device.
The associate professor of chemistry at the University of Missouri–St. Louis builds luminescent silicon and germanium compounds that can potentially be used in organic light-emitting diodes or OLEDs, best known for lighting the screens of smartphones, tablets and televisions. The synthesized compounds may also be potentially used in chemical and biological sensors.
Specifically, Wilking focuses on building compounds that emit blue light. Why are blue emitters so special?
“There’s actually a need for them,” Wilking said. “Some of the organic molecules that are blue emitters are not stable enough to be useful. A lot of the molecules that we’ve been making are blue emitters and appear to be very stable at elevated temperatures.”
Both Janet Wilking (center) and Steven Skaggs (at right), along with a doctoral student and two undergraduate researchers in the lab, have served as mentors to Preston Willis (at left), who is gaining research experience through the STARS program the summer before his senior year of high school at Westminster Christian Academy.
Compared to other colors on the spectrum, blue requires higher energy emission that can result in blue OLEDs not lasting as long and being a lot pricier. Strong, stable blue emitters are a step toward solving ...

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