Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014 RESEARCH

RESEARCH: Review
Light-emitting electrochemical cells:
recent progress and future prospects
Sebastian B. Meier1, Daniel Tordera1, Antonio Pertegás1, Cristina Roldán-Carmona1,2,
Enrique Ortı́1 and Henk J. Bolink1,*
1
Instituto de Ciencia Molecular, Universidad de Valencia, C/Catedrático J. Beltrán 2, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
2
Department of Physical Chemistry and Applied Thermodynamics, University of Cordoba, Campus de Rabanales, Edificio Marie Curie, 14014 Córdoba, Spain

We provide a short review on light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), one of the simplest kinds of
electroluminescent devices. In their simplest form, they consist of just one active layer containing an
emitter and a salt. They operate with low voltages, which allows for high power efficiencies, and air-
stable electrodes, which simplifies the encapsulation requirements. The aim of this review is to
highlight the recent advances and the main remaining challenges. We describe the current
understanding of their peculiar operation mechanism and focus on the major concepts used to improve
their performance.

Introduction layers or reactive metals for an efficient injection of electrons

Artificial lighting is one of the primary driving forces of modern
society. The consumption of electrical energy in the lighting sector
was ca. 3500 TW hour in 2012, corresponding to an equivalent CO2
production of 1900 Mt [1]. As we become increasingly concerned
about saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases, lighting repre-
sents the ideal playing field to challenge existing technologies and
to search for alternative efficient illuminants. On the other hand,
the evolution of technology calls for innovative products with
advanced product architectures. Organic electroluminescent
devices are efficient, thin, can be flexible and even transparent
making them a serious alternative to their inorganic analogs [2,3].
Since the invention of organic and polymer light-emitting
diodes (OLEDs) by Tang and Friend [4,5], the field has greatly
evolved and the devices already meet the typical performances of
fluorescent tubes [6,7]. Organic semiconductors offer a series of
advantages over their inorganic counterparts such as the possibi-
lity to fabricate light-weight and very thin devices, their proces-
sability on flexible and large-area substrates and the ease of tuning
their electrical and optical properties [8,9]. Efficient and stable
state-of-the-art OLEDs are based on a multi-stack architecture of
small molecular-weight components that make use of injection
*Corresponding author:. Bolink, H.J. (henk.bolink@uv.es)
(Fig. 1a). The multi-layer geometry is obtained by sequentially
evaporating the active materials under high-vacuum conditions.
These devices require rigorous encapsulation to prevent degrada-
tion of the air-sensitive materials supporting electron injection. As
a result, production costs of OLEDs are considerable delaying their
large-scale market entry for lighting applications.
In the mid-1990s Pei and co-workers discovered that the prop-
erties of OLEDs can be drastically altered by mixing high con-
centrations of mobile ions with a conjugated polymer and a solid
electrolyte [11]. They described the injection of electronic charges
from the metallic electrodes as electrochemical oxidation and
reduction of the conjugated polymer, from which the name of the
new devices (light-emitting electrochemical cells or LECs) was
derived, [11,12]. At nearly the same time Lee et al. showed that an
ionic transition-metal complex (iTMC) sandwiched in between
two electrodes also leads to efficient electroluminescence [13].
Here we will refer to polymer LECs (pLECs) when the light-emit-
ting material is a polymer, and to iTMC-LECs when it is an ionic
small molecular-weight complex. In contrast to the polymer-
based devices, where ionic and electronic conductivity is
decoupled, the ionic complex in iTMC-LECs is responsible for
both events allowing in principle for single component devices
[10,14–17].

1369-7021/ß 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2014.04.029

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[(Figure_1)TD$IG]
RESEARCH: Review

FIGURE 1
(a) Schematic representation of a state-of-the-art OLED. (b) A state-of-the-art LEC. OLEDs require multiple layers, some of them processed by evaporation
under high-vacuum conditions. Air-sensitive low work function metals or electron injecting layers are needed for efficient charge carrier injection. LECs can
be prepared from just a single active layer. The movement of the ions in the layer under an applied bias allows for efficient charge carrier injection from air-
stable electrodes. Taken from Ref. [10].

LECs are simple single-layer devices (Fig. 1b) that can be easily
prepared via solution-based technologies such as spin-coating,
printing or slot-die coating [18,19]. Moreover, their peculiar opera-
tional mechanism, correlated to the presence of mobile ions in the
active layer, allows on the one hand for the use of air-stable
electrode materials reducing the need of a rigorous encapsulation,
and on the other hand for the use of thick active layers making the
devices more fault tolerant. These properties make LECs very
attractive for industrial processing. The turn-on of light in these
devices depends on the physical displacement of ions in the light-
emitting layer after a voltage is applied. This leads to turn-on times
ranging from milliseconds to hours depending on the ionic con-
ductivity of the light-emitting layer. Hence, applications of these
devices are generally believed to be in the realm of lighting and
signage rather than in high-end displays.
This review illustrates the fundamentals of LEC technology and
highlights the latest achievements and remaining challenges. The
emphasis is on iTMC-LECs yet a few recent achievements of pLECs
are also included. For a detailed overview of earlier work and
advances in the discovery of new materials for LECs the reader
is referred to previously published reviews [10,15–17,20–22].
Operation mechanism
The functional principle of LECs has been the subject of an intense
debate ever since their discovery by Pei et al. [23–25]. Two models
have been proposed, the electrodynamic model (ED) [26–29] and
the electrochemical doping model (ECD) [11,12,30–35], and mea-
surement results have been interpreted in either of them. In recent
years, however, a consensus on the mechanism has evolved and
both models have been demonstrated to be rather limiting cases of
a unifying description (Fig. 2) [36]. In the following, the current
understanding of the functional principle of LECs is briefly
reviewed.
After applying an external bias, the first step in LEC operation
involves a redistribution of the ions in the active layer. Driven by the
electrical field, anions and cations migrate to the respective elec-
trode interfaces to form thin sheets of uncompensated charge
referred to as electric double layers (EDLs) [26–29]. Using impedance

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Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014 RESEARCH
[(Figure_2)TD$IG]
response time was demonstrated to be the binding energy between
anions and cations [38].
The external quantum efficiency (EQE) is determined by the
fraction of electrons and holes that recombine to form excitons
(b), the exciton-to-photon generation efficiency (w) and the
amount of photons that can escape the device or outcoupling
efficiency estimated by 1/2n2 [46].
b’
EQE ¼
2n2

RESEARCH: Review
In LECs, after the injection barriers have been overcome, all
FIGURE 2 electrons and holes recombine (b = 1) [47]. The outcoupling effi-
Schematic representation of the operation mechanism of LECs at sufficient ciency depends mainly on the device architecture and on the light
high voltages after formation of the electric double layers (EDLs) and the generation zone in the device. The former is fixed whereas the
p- and n-type doped zones.
latter is difficult to predict and has been reported to shift with
operation time [33,48]. That leaves w as the factor that is most
easily adjusted. To understand the dependence of w it is important
spectroscopy, the thickness of these EDLs was found to be in the
to realize that when an electron and hole recombine either a
range of 2–6 nm for pLECs in sandwich geometry [37,38]. At low
singlet or a triplet exciton is formed. Statistically 75% of the
biases, typically below 2.5 V, the carrier injection is limited and the
excitons are triplet and 25% are of singlet nature. In most organic
device current is dominated by ionic transport and electronic charge
materials, triplet excitons do not lead to light emission at room
carrier diffusion. In this situation, the entire applied potential drops
temperature limiting severely the efficiency of fluorescent LECs.
over the EDLs and the bulk of the active layer remains field-free [36].
Phosphorescent emitters, on the other hand, are able to harvest
Under these conditions, however, the device emits with very low
both singlet and triplet excitons. iTMCs incorporate heavy metal
luminance. Only at higher biases, typically higher than 2.5 V, the
atoms such as ruthenium or iridium that allow for a highly
luminance levels increase to values interesting for applications. At
efficient intersystem crossing. Hence they are phosphorescent
such biases, much more charges are injected leading to the oxidiza-
complexes which lead, in theory, to much more efficient devices
tion and reduction of the semiconducting material. These oxidized
[10,17]. w also depends on the photoluminescent efficiencies,
and reduced species, stabilized by the uncompensated ions of
which can be high in thin film configuration. However, as men-
opposite sign present at the electrode interfaces, are identical to
tioned, the operation of LECs results in the formation of doped
what is obtained by chemical oxidation and reduction used in
regions that grow with time and leads to a partial quenching of the
doped organic devices [39]. Hence, also in LECs this process is
excitons and hence to a reduction of w. Therefore, the highest
referred to as doping.
efficiency in LECs is obtained at the onset of light emission. As the
The generation of doped zones, p-type at the anode and n-type
extent of doping depends on the current density applied, the
at the cathode, leads to the formation of highly conductive regions
efficiency of devices decreases with increasing current density.
that slowly grow toward each other. The remainder of the applied
That explains why the highest reported efficiencies were obtained
potential, which is not used for charge injection from the electro-
at low luminescence levels [49,50].
des, drops over the low-conductive intrinsic region in-between the
Apart from marked differences in the active layer constituents
doped zones where light emission occurs. The presence of these
pLECs and iTMC-LECs typically show operational time scales that
doped layers has been demonstrated in planar and sandwiched
can differ by many orders of magnitude at room temperature. Due
LECs using a variety of techniques, including current–voltage
to this, they have been considered and treated as two distinct types
analysis, electrostatic potential determination and photolumines-
of devices. In a recent study, van Reenen et al. demonstrated that
cence [40–43]. Doped zones are known to quench excitons leading
both types of devices show performance transients, namely, cur-
to a decrease in photoluminescence. When no precaution is used
rent, luminance and efficacy, that follow a universal shape (Fig. 3)
and ion supply is not limited, the p- and n-doped zones continue
[51]. This highlights that pLECs and iTMC-LECs are really two
to grow with operating time until eventually they make contact.
extremes of one class of electroluminescent device. Moreover, it
During this growth process the exciton-to-photon conversion
was concluded that the turn-on time of polymer and iTMC-based
efficiency decreases due to increasing exciton quenching by the
devices is dominated by the ionic conductivity because it exhibits
approaching doped regions. This leads to a decrease in the lumi-
the same activation energy as the ionic conductivity in the off-
nance of the LEC until eventually no light is emitted [42]. Funda-
state. LECs have also been reported based just on small molecular-
mental insight into the doping dynamics during the formation of
weight charge transporting and emitting molecules in the pre-
the p–i–n junction was given by numerical modeling, experimen-
sence of an electrolyte [52]. Similarly, ionic fluorescent emitters
tal results and a combination thereof [44]. The establishment and
have been reported to operate as a LEC [53].
the migration of the doping fronts was demonstrated to be inti-
mately related to both the electronic and ionic mobility, the
applied bias voltage and the thickness of the active layer [45]. Addition of ions to the light-emitting layer
In particular, it was found that the turn-on time of LECs is directly For polymer LECs it is essential that ions are added to the light-
correlated to the time an ion needs to cross approximately half of emitting layer, it is not so when iTMCs are used as these are
the electrode spacing. Another important factor determining the intrinsically ionic. In spite of this it was realized early on that

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[(Figure_3)TD$IG]
RESEARCH: Review
FIGURE 3
Normalized luminance, current and efficacy of polymer and iTMC-LECs (blue and red curves, respectively) at two different temperatures and biased at the
same voltage of 3.5 V. The transients follow a very similar shape. Taken from Ref. [51].
the type of counter-ion employed to balance the charge of the
iTMC had a large effect on the device performance. For example,
a device containing an iTMC with a small counter-ion had a
faster turn-on than a similar device employing an iTMC with a
larger counter-ion [54]. In line with the mechanism outlined in
the previous paragraph, such faster devices also were, in general,
less stable. Similar effects were obtained when additional salts,
such as electrolytes or ionic liquids, were added to the iTMC layer
[55]. In view of the wide variety of ionic liquids available,
remarkably few have been evaluated in iTMC-based LECs
[55–57]. It was observed, however, that the general relationship
between faster turn-on and shorter lifetime does depend on the
exact nature of the ions present in the light-emitting layer [56].
Recently, it was reported that the use of lithium based salts can
lead to good turn-on times and long stabilities even when
operated at constant voltage [58]. This work demonstrates that
benefits can be obtained by optimizing the exact formulation of
the light-emitting layer.
State-of-the-art devices
As mentioned, LECs are self-limiting devices due to the exciton
quenching induced by the generation and growth of doped
regions at the electrode interfaces. Therefore, to operate LECs at
the peak performance level it is essential that after the generation
of the doped zones their growth is prevented or retarded. Different
strategies, using both physical and chemical approaches, have
been adopted to limit the growth of the doped zones and to fixate
the p–i–n configuration [48,59–62]. A markedly fast and easy-to-
control photochemical stabilization procedure at room tempera-
ture was demonstrated by Tang and Edman [60]. The active
material of their pLECs comprised a photo-initiator compound,
a cross-linkable ion-pair monomer and an ion-transporting mate-
rial in addition to the conjugated polymer, and the fixation of the
p–i–n junction was accomplished via short-term exposure and UV
light (30 and 60 s). This results in devices with a fast turn-on, a
high current density and luminance (100 cd m2). They show a
strong rectification in current versus voltage following one day of
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Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014
storage under open-circuit conditions demonstrating the fixation
of the p–i–n junction (Fig. 4) [60].
Yu and co-workers stabilized the p–i–n junction of yellow-emit-
ting pLECs by the polymerization of methacrylate end-groups
containing ethylene oxide oligomers during junction formation
resulting in an enhanced performance of the devices [48]. In accel-
erated lifetime testing, the luminance dropped to 75% of the max-
imum brightness (T75%) of 2200 cd m2 in 102 hours. Additionally,
a luminous efficiency in excess of 15 lm W1 was obtained.
The formation dynamics of the p- and n-doped zones can be
influenced by the way the device is operated. It has been demon-
strated that current driving leads to fast turn-on of the devices
[48,63]. It was also shown that applying a pulsed voltage leads to
an enhanced lifetime of the devices [64,65]. By combining current
driving in a pulsed mode, using a block wave with a duty cycle of
30% and a frequency of 1000 Hz, it was shown that sub-second
turn-on can be combined with lifetimes exceeding 4000 hours
(extrapolated value) at a maximum luminance of 670 cd m2
(Fig. 5) [66]. These results indicate that the doped zones form very
fast, yet they do not grow fast as evidenced by the stable luminance
levels. Hence, apparently the system can relax during the off time
of the pulse, which strongly retards the growth of the doped
regions. This also allows for rather stable efficiencies over time,
as with a fixed p–i–n configuration the exciton-to-photon conver-
sion efficiency is constant [67–69].
Although the device efficiencies obtained using pulsed current
driving are rather stable, they are not as high as previously reported
values obtained with constant voltage driving [46,70]. In these
devices, high efficiencies were obtained at low luminance levels
and were sustained only for a brief period of time. Improvements
were recently obtained by combining the pulsed current driving
with low current densities. This has led to LECs with an efficiency
of 28.2 cd A1 at a luminance of 750 cd m2 which only gradually
decreased over the lifetime of the device [49].
An alternative or additional approach to maintain optimum
exciton-to-photon conversion efficiency is to position the emis-
sive zone in the center of the device, far away from the exciton
Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014 RESEARCH
[(Figure_4)TD$IG]

RESEARCH: Review
FIGURE 4
Schematic representation of the photochemical stabilization of the p–i–n junction in a pLEC. (a) Pristine device consisting of an undoped, semi-conducting
polymer (SY), an ion-conducting polymer (poly-PEO) and the ion source (ion-pair monomer). (b) The formation of the p–i–n junction is initiated via applying
an external voltage. (c) The ions and the ion-transporting material are cross-linked by means of UV illumination resulting in the stabilization of the p–i–n
junction. Taken from Ref. [60].

quenching doped zones at the electrode interfaces (Fig. 6). Liao
et al. achieved this by adjusting the charge carrier mobilities of a
LEC [71]. In their work, they used a cyan-emitting iTMC with
preferably hole-transporting capability as emissive material
together with a cationic fluorescent near-infrared dye that func-
tioned additionally as hole trap [71]. This led to a device with a
power- and external quantum efficiency of 28.70 lm W1 and
12.75%, respectively, which represents a 1.4 times enhancement
compared to the device without the dye.
Edman and co-workers designed a tri-layer approach positioning
[(Figure_5)TD$IG]
a hydrophilic porous ion-free layer in between two hydrophobic
and mobile-ion containing layers [72]. Upon applying a voltage, the
outer layers are doped and light emission is originated from the
interlayer in the center of the device, hence localizing the formation
of the excitons and limiting the electrode quenching.
The use of iTMCs, that perform the dual role of emitter and
charge transporter, has advantages for the film processing as there
is only a single component in the film. However, as a result of the
dual role they play, a trade-off exists in the optimum concentra-
tion of iTMC in the light-emitting film. To achieve efficient charge
transport, high concentration of complexes is desired, whereas
the opposite is true for high luminescence properties. At high

FIGURE 5
Luminance (up triangles), average voltage (down triangles) and power efficiency (squares) versus time for an iTMC-LEC driven with a block-wave pulsed
current at a duty cycle of 30%, a frequency of 1000 Hz and an average current density of 185 A m2.

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 RESEARCH
[(Figure_6)TD$IG]
RESEARCH: Review
FIGURE 6
LEC device incorporating an iridium(III) iTMC as the active material with
preferred hole transport properties and a fluorescent dye that acts as hole
trapper. By adjusting the charge carrier mobilities via a careful choice of
the ratio between both materials, the location of the recombination zone
can be tuned. The best efficiency (EQE = 12.75%) is obtained when the
electron and hole mobilities (me and mh, respectively) are almost equal in
magnitude leading to an emission zone located in the middle of the
device. Taken from Ref. [71].
concentration of the iTMC in the film excitons are able to hop
between neighboring iTMC molecules. As a result of this hopping,
part of the excitons encounter quenching sites (impurities and
imperfections in the film), which leads to a reduction in the
exciton-to-photon conversion efficiency. Long-living triplet exci-
tons are especially prone to quenching by hopping through the
film. Although this puts constraints on the maximum achievable
photoluminescence efficiency, it can be circumvented by adding a
guest emitter with a lower bandgap to the iTMC film in analogy to
what is frequently practiced in OLEDs. First examples were shown
by Hosseini et al., who used an osmium complex doped in a
ruthenium-iTMC film [73]. A similar approach based on a low-
and a high-bandgap iridium iTMC was first demonstrated by Su
et al., who obtained a power efficiency of 36.8 lm W1 [74]. The
host–guest approach was extended to systems in which an ionic
wide bandgap material was doped with an iTMC [75].
[(Figure_7)TD$IG]
FIGURE 7
Photographs of R2R-coated large area (210 cm2) prototype LECs prepared at Osram GmbH Corporate Technology by the team of Dr. F. Volkommer. Devices
were laminated with an Al back sheet and a transparent barrier foil on front, causing the reflection pattern of the ambient illumination in the picture on the
right. The device was operated in ambient air. Taken from Ref. [86].
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Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014
White light
The small amount of white-LECs reported in the literature can
largely be ascribed to the lack of stable and deep-blue-emitting
materials that operate in a LEC device configuration. Particularly,
Su et al. and He et al. obtained white-emitting iTMC-based devices
by double-doping a blue-green host with orange- and red-emitting
guests [76,77]. To get away from the need of stable deep-blue
emitters for white emission, the microcavity effect of the LEC
device structure was used to suppress the green part of the elec-
troluminescence spectrum of a blue-green-emitting iTMC [78].
Tang et al. used a multifluorophoric conjugated polymer to pro-
duce white LECs from single-emitter LECs reaching an efficacy of
3.8 cd A1 [79]. Recently, it was shown that LECs are particularly
suitable for the preparation of tandem devices, as no charge
generation layer is required in between the two subdevices [80].
Using a blue pLEC and an orange iTMC-LEC as the bottom and top
device, respectively, white light was obtained with a peak effi-
ciency of 8.45 cd A1 at a luminance of 845 cd m2.
Processing
Although most devices have been prepared on glass substrates,
LECs are very well-suited for the production on flexible substrates
in a roll-to-roll (R2R) fashion. Graphene and carbon nanotube
substrate-based LECs have been demonstrated [81–84]. Even
stretchable LECs were shown by employing an elastomer matrix
[85]. Both Osram and the groups of Krebs and Edman have
demonstrated the successful R2R production of LECs (Fig. 7) using
iTMCs and polymers, respectively [19,86].
Challenges and outlook
LECs, due to their relatively slow turn-on, are not very well-suited
for high-end display applications. In contrast, due to their simple
structure and easy processing, they appear well-suited for applica-
tion in lighting. For general lighting applications, however, white
light is required. To achieve white LECs with high luminance
Materials Today  Volume 17, Number 5  June 2014 RESEARCH

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