Study of mechanical properties of light-emitting polymer films by nano-indentation technique

This paper presents our recent study on characterizing mechanical properties of a series of light-emitting conjugated polymer films designed for Polymer Light Emitting Diode (PLED) applications. The nano-indentation technique is used for such characterization. The elastic modulus and hardness of the conjugated polymers are found to be significantly higher than other polymeric materials. The mechanical properties of the conjugated polymer films are correlated with their chemical structures. The structures of side chains in the polymers show significant effects on the measured mechanical properties.