In
contrast to a substantial progress of heavy metal-free green
and red emitters exclusively from indium phosphide (InP) quantum dots
(QDs), the development of non-Cd blue QDs remains nearly unexplored.
The synthesis of blue InP QDs with a bright, deep-blue emissivity
is not likely viable, which is primarily associated with their intrinsic
size limitation. To surmount this challenge, herein, the first synthesis
of blue-emissive ternary InGaP QDs through In3+-to-Ga3+ cation-exchange strategy is implemented. Pregrown InP QDs
turn out to be efficiently Ga-alloyed at a relatively low temperature
of 280 °C in the presence of Ga iodide (GaI3), and
the degree of Ga alloying is also found to be systematically adjustable
by varying GaI3 amounts. Such cation-exchanged InGaP cores
are surface-passivated sequentially with ZnSeS inner and ZnS outer
shells. As the amount of GaI3 added for cation exchange
increases, the resulting double-shelled InGaP/ZnSeS/ZnS QDs produce
consistent blue shifts in photoluminescence (PL) from 475 to 465 nm,
while maintaining high PL quantum yield in the range of 80–82%.
Among a series of QD samples, above 465 nm emitting InGaP/ZnSeS/ZnS
QDs are further employed as an emitting layer of an all-solution-processed
electroluminescent device. This unprecedented InGaP QD-based blue
device generates maximum values of 1038 cd/m2 in luminance
and 2.5% in external quantum efficiency.
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