Teaching Organic Electronics: The Synthesis of the Conjugated Polymer MEH-PPV in a Hands-on Experiment for Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are modern illuminants of the next generation. OLEDs use (among others) semiconducting polymers for light emission and open the pathway to innovative applications as flexible or transparent displays or luminaire. For the school-implementation of OLEDs low-cost experiments and teaching materials have been developed earlier. This contribution delivers a school-experiment for the synthesis of a semiconducting polymer and presents a successful example of a curricular innovation based on the cooperation between subject science and science education.