Modification effect of hole injection layer on efficiency performance of wet-processed blue organic light emitting diodes

We examined the performance of solution-processed organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) by modifying the hole injection layer (HIL), poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed morphological changes with surface roughness (RRMS) of 1.47, 1.73, and 1.37 nm for pristine PEDOT: PSS, PEDOT: PSS modified with a 40 v% deionized water and with a 30 v% acetone, respectively. The surface hydrophobicity of the acetone modified PEDOT:PSS HIL layer was decreased by 34% as comparing with the water modified counterpart. Electrical conductivity was increased to two orders of magnitude for the water and acetone modified PEDOT:PSS as compared to pristine. We observed a low refractive index and high transmittance for the modified HILs. We fabricated and explored electroluminescent properties of bis[2(4,6-difluorophenyl)pyridinato-C2,N](picolinato)iridium(III) (FIrpic) based sky blue device by utilizing HIL with and without modification. The changes in electrical conductivity, surface roughness, refractive index, and transmittance of the modified HILs strongly influenced the performance of devices. By utilizing a 30% acetone modified HIL, the power efficiency was increased from 14.2 to 24.2 lm/W, an increment of 70% and the EQE from 8.5 to 13.1% at 100 cd/m2, an increment of 54%. The maximum luminance also increased from 11,780 to 18,190 cd/m2. The findings revealed herein would be helpful in designing and fabricating high efficiency solution processed OLEDs.

Automated summary

The study found that modifying the PEDOT:PSS hole injection layer significantly improves the performance of solution-processed OLEDs, with devices utilizing acetone-modified HIL showing the best performance.