The global Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display market is valued at USD 38.4 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 72.8 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.6%.

Increased demand for better viewing experiences coupled with substantial investments from government and private institutions in OLED manufacturing, R&D and supply chain has led to the rapid adoption of OLEDs in consumer electronics.

One of the major drawbacks of older generations of OLEDS was component instability which led to a short lifetime when compared to more conventional light emitting diodes. Recent advances in R&D and improved manufacturing have significantly improved the longevity of OLEDs.

Deuterium is used in novel OLED manufacturing processes as well as OLED R&D due to its unique stabilization properties. Due to the presence of a neutron, the atomic mass of deuterium is twice as much as protium – the most common isotope of hydrogen. Therefore, the bond lengths and bond energy of deuterium bonds are also different from those of protium. These changes are known as kinetic isotope effects (KIE). Compounds, which have been deuterated tend to exhibit significant kinetic isotope effects.

Deuterated chemicals are used in OLED components responsible for the emission of blue light. These blue light emitting components tend to degrade the fastest due to the inherent nature of blue light which has a high frequency.

By leveraging the deuterium kinetic isotope effect, deuterated chemicals have the potential to extend the lifetime of these components by a factor of five to twenty as well as to improve the overall efficiency of an OLED device.