Bin Hu

UTK materials science and engineering

How difficult can it be to produce energy-saving white light? Difficult, to be sure! But also very worthwhile.

Solid-state LEDs (light emitting diodes) are now emerging as a cost-effective, energy-efficient alternative to conventional incandescent and fluorescent lighting. But efficiently producing a stable and reliable “white” light of the type and quality we are accustomed to has proven more complicated.

JDRD team leader Bin Hu has made considerable progress improving the quality and efficiency of white electroluminescence in concert with a new LDRD project headed by Chad Duty. The LDRD team concentrates on improving the efficiency of inorganic white electroluminescence while, for their part, Hu and graduate student Ming Shao, along with exceptionally promising high school seniors Daniel Wentz and Nathan Cameron, focus on developing highly efficient organic white electroluminescence. In collaboration, both teams are well on their way to achieving superior hybrid light-emitting materials for advanced white electroluminescence.

Research discoveries in the first year of the project show promise that

new control and manufacturing processes will make these materials even more attractive and competitive for lighting applications of all types.

The collaboration of basic science and advanced technology in this cooperative JDRD and LDRD enterprise has already resulted in two additional joint proposals for funding through the Department of Energy and two papers now in review.

JDRD Project: Development of highly efficient organic white electroluminescence for solid-state lighting;
LDRD Project: Revolutionary method for increasing efficiency of white-light quantum-dot LEDs, Chad E. Duty.