Black and Light: Melanin-Inspired Design of Electroluminescent Organic Platforms

The growing expansion and impact of OLED devices in our everyday life have stimulated the synthesis of a wide plethora of electroluminescent materials with the aim of improving the efficiency and the life-time of the device as well as of selectively tuning the wavelength of the emitting light. In the frame of our research activity aimed at exploring the role of melanins, the dark pigments found in mammalian skin, hair and eyes, as soft organic semiconductors in bio-electronic devices, we have undertaken a new challenge: to obtain innovative electroluminescent compounds from black melanin pigments. The strategy of this research activity has been based on the use of melanin precursors, such as 5,6-dihydroxyindole and dopamine, as starting compounds for the synthesis of fluorescent or phosphorescent materials for applications as emitting layer in OLED devices. In this communication we will discuss the synthesis of a set melanin-inspired electroluminescent compounds; we will report on their photo-physical and electrical properties; the fabrication and characterization of the corresponding OLED devices will also be presented.