Light-emitting electrochemical cells: recent progress and future prospects

We provide a short review on light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), one of the simplest kinds of electroluminescent devices. In their simplest form, they consist of just one active layer containing an emitter and a salt. They operate with low voltages, which allows for high power efficiencies, and air-stable electrodes, which simplifies the encapsulation requirements. The aim of this review is to highlight the recent advances and the main remaining challenges. We describe the current understanding of their peculiar operation mechanism and focus on the major concepts used to improve their performance.