Highly Efficient Red Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes by Balancing Charge Injection and Transport

Quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) have promising commercial value and application prospects in the fields of displays and lighting. However, a charge-transfer imbalance always exists in the devices. In this work, the high-efficiency red QLEDs were obtained via employing the mixtures of poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-(4,4'-(N-(4-butylphenyl) (TFB) and 4,4'-bis(carbazole-9-yl)-1,1'-biphenyl (CBP) as hole-transport layers (HTLs) by solution processing. The optimized mixing concentration of CBP is 20 wt %. The corresponding red QLED exhibited a maximum luminance of 963 433 cd m(-2), a maximum current efficiency of 38.7 cd A(-1), an external quantum efficiency of 30.0%, a central wavelength of 628 nm with a narrow full width at half-maximum (fwhm) of 24 nm, and a 5-fold T-50 lifetime enhancement at an extremely high luminance of 200 000 cd m(-2). The characteristics of carrier-only devices with QD emissive layers (QD EMLs) and impedance characteristics of QLEDs demonstrate that these advances are chiefly ascribed to the more balanced charge transport and efficient hole-electron recombination in EML. We anticipate that our results could offer a low-cost and simple solution-processed method for preparing high-performance QLEDs.

Automated summary

In this study, high-efficiency red QLEDs were obtained by employing specific mixtures of polymers as hole-transport layers. The QLED exhibited excellent luminance performance and long lifetime, with the improvements attributed to more balanced charge transport and efficient hole-electron recombination in the emissive layer.