Electrochemical Light-Emitting Gel

Light-emitting gel, a gel state electroluminescence material, is reported. It is composed of a ruthenium complex as the emitter, an ionic liquid as the electrolyte, and oxide nanoparticles as the gelation filler. Emitted light was produced via electrogenerated chemiluminescence. The light-emitting gel operated at low voltage when an alternating current was passed through it, regardless of its structure, which is quite thick. The luminescence property of the gel is strongly affected by nanoparticle materials. TiO2 nanoparticles were a better gelation filler than silica or ZnO was, with respect to luminescence stability, thus indicating a catalytic effect. It is demonstrated that the light-emitting gel device, with quite a simple fabrication process, flashes with the application of voltage.