Development of White\nLight-Emitting Textiles Using\nInorganic Phosphor-Loaded Photopolymers for Potential Lighting Applications

The development of flexible textile-based lighting systems\nremains\nchallenging, usually requiring the combination of light-emitting diodes\n(LEDs) with polymer optical fibers to achieve larger emission areas.\nHowever, the overall emission remains point-based, leading to possible\nglare issues and shadowed zones. In this context, the present work\nproposes the development of light-emitting textiles that uniformly\ndistribute white light when excited by a blue LED source. Simple cotton\nsubstrates were coated with a flexible photoluminescent phosphor-loaded\npolymer composite. The yellow and/or red phosphors were efficiently\nincorporated into the polymer matrix via a fast and easy-to-implement\nUV-induced polymerization reaction, conducted in air and in the absence\nof any toxic organic solvents. Under blue light, the yellow phosphor-coated\ntextile produced cold white light, but the color temperature was easily\ntuned to warmer nuances by adjusting the amount of red-emitting phosphor,\nwith high color rendering index (>70) and luminance values over\n500\ncd/m<sup>2</sup>. Stability and structural measurements were then\ncarried out to assess possible scale-up options. The versatility of\nthe polymer matrix also expanded the possible applications to 2D surface\nfunctionalization and 3D printing.