Colour stabilities of three types of orthodontic clear aligners exposed to staining agents

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the colour stabilities of three types of orthodontic clear aligners exposed to staining agents in vitro. Sixty clear orthodontic aligners produced by three manufacturers （Invisalign, Angelalign, and Smartee） were immersed in three staining solutions （coffee, black tea, and red wine） and one control solution （distilled water）. After 12-h and 7-day immersions, the aligners were washed in an ultrasonic cleaner and measured with a colourimeter. The colour changes （△E＊） were calculated on the basis of the Commission Internationale de I＇Eclairage L＊a＊b＊ colour system （CIE L＊a＊b＊）, and the results were then converted into National Bureau of Standards （NBS） units. Fourier transformation infrared （FT-IR） spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy （SEM） were conducted to observe the molecular and morphologic alterations to the aligner surfaces, respectively. The three types of aligners exhibited slight colour changes after 12 h of staining, with the exception of the Invisalign aligners stained with coffee. The Invisalign aligners exhibited significantly higher AE＊ values （ranging from 0.30 to 27.81） than those of the Angelalign and Smartee aligners （AE＊ values ranging from 0.33 to 1.89 and 0.32 to 1.61, respectively, P〈O.05）. IFT-IR analysis confirmed that the polymer-based structure of aligners did not exhibit significant chemical differences before and after the immersions. The SEM results revealed different surface alterations to the three types of aligner materials after the 7-day staining. The three types of aesthetic orthodontic appliances exhibited colour stability after the 12-h immersion, with the exception of the Invisalign aligners stained by coffee. The Invisalign aligners were more prone than the Angelalign and Smartee aligners to pigmentation. Aligner materials may be improved by considering aesthetic colour stability properties.

White organic light-emitting device with both phosphorescent and fluorescent emissive layers

This paper reports the fabrication of novel white organic light-emitting device（WOLED） by using a high efficiency blue fluorescent dye N-（4-（（E）-2-（6-（（E）-4-（diphenylamino）styryl）naphthalen-2-yl）vinyl）phenyl）oN- phenylbenzenamine （N-BDAVBi） and a red phosphoresecent dye bis （1-（phenyl） isoquinoline） iridium （III） acetylanetonate （Ir（piq）2（acac））. The configuration of the device was ITO/PVK：TPD/CBP： N-BDAVBi /CBP/ BALq： Ir（piq）2（acac）/BCP/Alq3/LiF：AL. By adjusting the proportion of the dopants （N-BDAVBi, Ir（piq）2（acac）） in the light-emitting layer, white light with Commission Internationale de l＇Eclairage （CIE） coordinates of （0.35, 0.35） and a maximum luminance of 25350cd/m2 were obtained external quantum and current efficiency of 6.78% and between the two light-emitting layers and using BCP at an applied voltage of 22V. The WOLED exhibits maximum 12cd/A respectively. By placing an undoped spacer CBP layer as hole blocking layer, the colour stabilization slightly changed when the driving voltage increased from 6 to 22 V.

Efficient top-emitting white organic light emitting device with an extremely stable chromaticity and viewing-angle

In this paper,we report on the fabrication of a top-emitting electrophosphorescent p-i-n white organic lightemitting diode on the basis of a low-reflectivity Sm/Ag semi-transparent cathode together with a thickness-optimized ZnS out-coupling layer.With a 24-nm out-coupling layer,the reflectivity of the cathode is reduced to 8% at 492 nm and the mean reflectivity is 24% in the visible area.By introducing an efficient electron blocking layer tris（1phenylpyrazolato,N,C2 ＇）iridium（III）（Ir（ppz） 3） to confine the exciton recombination area,the current efficiency and the colour stability of the device are effectively improved.A white emission with the Ir（ppz） 3 layer exhibits a maximum current efficiency of 9.8 cd/A at 8 V,and the Commission Internationale de L＇Eclairage（CIE） chromaticity coordinates are almost constant during a large voltage change of 6 V-11 V.There is almost no viewing angular dependence in the spectrum when the viewing angle is no more than 45,with a CIE x,y coordinate variation of only（±0.0025,±0.0008）.Even at a large viewing angle（75）,the CIE x,y coordinate change is as small as（±0.0087,±0.0013）.