The research team of Professor Lee Sang-hyun of the School of Chemical Engineering has developed new luminescent material for TV and computer displays which omits lead, a toxin harmful to the human body.

Professor Lee’s research team cooperated with of the Institute of Advanced Composite Materials of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology to develop this non-toxic lead-free perovskite nanomaterial.

Perovskite is a semiconductive material used to produce solar cells as well as TVs and computer displayers. It can convert light into electricity or electricity into light, and is being applied to industrial fields such as solid state lighting and lasers.

Perovskite can be synthesized by a relatively simple manufacturing process and can produce a high emitting rate with even with a very small amount, allowing the display vivid and diverse colors.

In addition, this synthetic material has overcome conventional luminescent material’s traditional dependence on lead, which is harmful to both the environment and the human body. This makes the new luminescent material promising for future optical devices and displays.

After much trial and error, the research team has successfully synthesized highly stable and high-quality perovskite nanomaterials by using a rare earth element, ytterbium (AC No. 70), to replace lead. In addition, this new development is expected to pave the new way for other opportunities new applications of lead-free perovskite nanomaterials, such as high-performance photodetector devices, as well as the application and commercialization of the raw materials involved.

This research has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (of the Ministry of Science and ICT). The research accomplishments were published in the online edition of Advanced Materials (which has an Impact Factor of 25.809) on June 23.