DuPont is scaling up its formulations capability in the area of OLED materials. Recently, the chemicals giant has opened a facility to serve the commercialization of next-generation TVs and other large-format displays. The firm has invested more than $20 million in the plant, which is based at DuPont’s Stine-Haskell Research Center in Delaware, US.

Technology package
Back in June, DuPont announced that it was teaming up with Kateeva, a manufacturer of industrial ink-jet printing equipment, to optimize materials and processes to advance the fabrication of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays.

Printed displays give developers the opportunity to reduce material waste compared with evaporative techniques and target more competitive price-points for their products.

Applications for OLED materials also include lighting, and DuPont is working with the Holst Centre on this topic as part of an extended collaboration reported in 2014.

Timeline
DuPont has been building its portfolio of OLED materials for 15 years. In 2000, the firm acquired UNIAX – a pioneering display company founded by Alan Heeger, which was spun out of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 1990. Heeger is a winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry (together with Alan G. MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa) for the discovery and development of electrically conducting polymers.

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