Bio-inspired design of flexible semitransparent encapsulation toward self-cleaning and anti-reflective quantum dot light-emitting diodes.

As the demand of outdoor displays grows, light-emitting diodes characterized by multifunction with water resistance, anti-reflection, and self-cleaning have gradually become an important and active research area. Herein, the rose petal epidermal microstructures have been employed as inspiration in flexible semitransparent encapsulation for quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs). This bio-inspired encapsulation not only effectively blocks the water and oxygen, but is easily self-cleaned by removing the physically adhered dusts because of its superhydrophobic surface. Moreover, the rose petal-inspired encapsulation also possesses strong anti-reflection ability for visible light due to its microstructure engraved on the surface. As a result, the semitransparent QLEDs with the rose petal-inspired encapsulation show a high brightness of 28637 cd/m2 as well as excellent self-cleaning and anti-reflection capacities. Thus, this work offers an effective encapsulation strategy for QLEDs and also other flat-panel light-emitting diodes to adapt to outdoor applications via utilizing biological microstructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]