Electron-Rich Alcohol-Soluble Neutral Conjugated Polymers as Highly Efficient Electron-Injecting Materials for Polymer Light-Emitting Diodes

We report the design and synthesis of three alcohol-soluble neutral conjugated polymers, poly[9,9-bis(2-(2-(2-diethanolaminoethoxy) ethoxy)ethyl)fluorene] (PF-OH), poly[9,9-bis(2-(2-(2-diethanol-aminoethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl)fluorene-alt-4,4'-phenylether] (PFPE-OH) and poly[9,9-bis(2-(2-(2-diethanolaminoethoxy) ethoxy)ethyl)fluorene-alt-benzothiadizole] (PFBT-OH) with different conjugation length and electron affinity as highly efficient electron injecting and transporting materials for polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). The unique solubility of these polymers in polar solvents renders them as good candidates for multilayer solution processed PLEDs. Both the fluorescent and phosphorescent PLEDs based on these polymers as electron injecting/transporting layer (ETL) were fabricated. It is interesting to find that electron-deficient polymer (PFBT-OH) shows very poor electron-injecting ability compared to polymers with electron-rich main chain (PF-OH and PFPE-OH). This phenomenon is quite different from that obtained from conventional electron-injecting materials. Moreover, when these polymers were used in the phosphorescent PLEDs, the performance of the devices is highly dependent on the processing conditions of these polymers. The devices with ETL processed from water/methanol mixed solvent showed much better device performance than the devices processed with methanol as solvent. It was found that the erosion of the phosphorescent emission layer could be greatly suppressed by using water/methanol mixed solvent for processing the polymer ETL. The electronic properties of the ETL could also be influenced by the processing conditions. This offers a new avenue to improve the performance of phosphorescent PLEDs through manipulating the processing conditions of these conjugated polymer ETLs.