The direct printing of microscale quantum dot light‐emitting diodes (QLEDs) is a cost‐effective alternative to the placement of pre‐formed LEDs. The quality of printed QLEDs currently is limited by nonuniformities in droplet formation, wetting, and drying during inkjet printing. Here, optimal ink formulation which can suppress nonuniformities at the pixel and array levels is demonstrated. A solvent mixture is used to tune the ejected droplet size, ensure wetting, and provoke Marangoni flows that prevent coffee stain rings. Arrays of green QLED devices are printed at a resolution of 500 pixels in.−1 with a maximum luminance of ≈3000 cd m−2 and a peak current efficiency of 2.8 cd A−1. The resulting array quality is sufficient to print displays at state‐of‐the‐art resolutions.
We
describe the gram-scale synthesis of hybrid gold nanoparticles
with a shell of conductive polymers. A large-scale synthesis of hexadecyltrimethylammonium
bromide (CTAB)-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNP@CTAB) was followed
by ligand exchange with conductive polymers based on thiophene in
a 10 L reactor equipped with a jacket to ensure a constant temperature
of 40 °C and a mechanical stirrer. Slow and controlled reduction
of the gold precursors and the presence of small amounts of silver
nitrate are revealed to be the critical synthesis variables to obtain
particles with a sufficiently narrow size distribution. Batches of
approximately 10 g of faceted AuNP@CTAB with tunable average particle
sizes from 54 to 85 nm were obtained per batch. Ligand exchange with
poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS)
in the same reactor then yielded hybrid Au@PEDOT:PSS nanoparticles.
They were used to formulate sinter-free inks for the inkjet printing
of conductive structures without the need for a sintering step.
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