Chemistry professor’s blue emitters for OLEDs offer high school student cutting-edge collegiate research experience

Graduate student Steven Skaggs , STARS student Preston Willis and Associate Professor Janet Wilking demonstrate the fluorescent property of the silicon and germanium compounds they synthesize in Wilking’s chemistry lab at UMSL. The compounds can be used in OLEDs, known for lighting screens of electronic devices. Blue OLEDs are particularly interesting for their tendency to not last as long, a problem Wilking and her research students are solving by creating stronger, more stable blue-emitting molecules.