Homopolymeric Protein Phosphors: Overpassing the Stability Frontier of Deep-Red Bio-Hybrid Light-Emitting Diodes

Abstract

Although protein-polymer phosphors are an emerging photon-management filter concept for hybrid light-emitting diodes, deep-red-emitting devices based on archetypal fluorescent proteins (FPs; mCherry) are still poorly performing with lifetimes <50 h under high photon-flux excitation and ambient conditions. Here, the challenge is two-fold: i) understanding the deactivation mechanism of red-emitting FP-polymer coatings and, in turn, ii) identifying the best polymer design for highly stable devices. This study first provides comprehensive photophysical/thermal/structural studies and device degradation (ambient/inert) analysis, revealing the presence of photo-induced cis–trans isomerization and the effect of oxygen and water on the deactivation of mCherry in reference polymer coatings. Based on these findings, a new bio-phosphor configuration using polyvinyl alcohol derivatives, in which crystallinity and amount of trapped water (stiffness and oxygen/moisture barriers) are easily controlled by the hydroxylation degree, is successfully achieved. Compared to the prior art, these devices significantly outperform the reference stability (>50-fold enhancement), showing a brightness loss of <5% over the first 2000 h and a final device lifetime of 2600 h. Hence, this study describes a unique rationale toward designing polymers to stabilize FPs for lighting, overpassing stability frontiers in deep-red hybrid light-emitting diodes (HLEDs) going from hours to months.