Flexible and stretchable electroluminescent (EL) devices play a crucial role in visualizing digital data for next-generation soft electronic systems. Recently, Prof. Xuechang Zhou’s research group from the College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Shenzhen University, report the research progress about hufu-type electroluminescent devices in the journal of Advanced Materials. This work is entitled “Fully Printable and Reconfigurable Hufu-type Electroluminescent Devices for Visualized Encryption”. Ziqing Luo, a postgraduate student, is the first author, and Dr. Yaokang Zhang and Prof. Xuechang Zhou are the corresponding authors.

Hufu, serving as evidence of imperial authorization in ancient China, comprises two parts in the form of tiger-shaped tallies that only become effective when matched. Drawing inspiration from the concept of Hufu, a reconfigurable electroluminescent (EL) device is designed by separating conventional integral devices into two parts that contain the EL layer (part A) and the transparent electrode (part B), respectively (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Concept and structure of h-ACEL devices.

Enlightened by the concept of Hufu, we have presented reconfigurable h-ACEL devices with functionalities for visual encryption for the first time based on stretchable and adhesive SACP electrodes. The concept of h-ACEL devices demonstrated in this work will open up a new pathway toward future flexible light emitting devices for fashion, stretchable displays, and information encryption. In addition, the concept of using adhesive transparent electrodes for reconfigurable devices is potentially suitable for other optoelectronic devices such as light emitting diodes and photovoltaics.

The authors acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of Chinaand Shenzhen Science and Technology Program for the financial support.

Article information:

Z. Luo, W. Chen, M. Lai, S. Shi, P. Chen, X. Yang, Z. Chen, B. Wang, Y. Zhang*, X. C. Zhou* Fully Printable and Reconfigurable Hufu-type Electroluminescent Devices for Visualized Encryption. Adv. Mater. 2024, 2313909. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202313909