Characteristics of organic light-emitting diodes with conducting polymer anodes on plastic substrates

Abstract

The fabrication of conducting polymer films by a screen-printing method and characterization of an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) implemented using these films as an anode on plastic substrates are reported. Organic transparent electrode materials containing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) doped with poly(styrenesulfonic acid) (PSS) (PEDOT:PSS) were used after the modification by a unique nanoparticle binder design. The electro-optical properties as well as mechanical stabilities of these films were measured. The OLED performances when employing these films were comparable to that of OLEDs using indium tin oxide (ITO) despite their relatively poor conductivity. An external quantum efficiency of the OLED using this anode is ∼3.5%, which is about twice as that of OLEDs using ITO. These results show that the organic transparent electrode of a conducting polymer film patterned by the screen-printing method is a potential candidate for an electrode of the flexible OLED.

Comparative study of the nanomorphology of spray and spin coated PTB7 polymer: Fullerene films

“…Semiconducting polymers and their blends with fullerene derivatives are enabling many emerging advanced technologies such as organic solar cells, organic transistors, and organic light emitting diodes . The structure and nanoscale morphology of the organic active layer play a crucial role in determining the physical properties and transport characteristics and in turn the performance of these organic devices .…”

Stable Bending Performance of Flexible Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Using IZO Anodes

“…From the optical transparency (T) and sheet resistance (R sh ) of the a -IZO film on the PES substrate, a figure of merits (Φ TC ) of the transparent anode can be calculated using Equation (1), which is suggested by Haacke17. The Φ TC value of the a -IZO film in this study is estimated to be 12.3 × 10 −3 Ω −1 , which is higher than those of other flexible transparent anodes151618192021, indicating that the a -IZO film is a promising anode material for good performance in FOLEDs.…”

“…In contrast, SWCNT and PEDOT:PSS/SWCNT nanocomposite show the good mechanical flexibility as well as the high optical transparency, but they have inferior electrical properties which lead to inefficient injection of holes from anode to organic semiconductor layers due to their high sheet resistance1520. In case of PEDOT:PSS and conducting polymer, they are not appropriate to be utilized as the flexible transparent anodes, because of their high sheet resistance and high ratio of sheet resistance change under the consecutive bending with a low strain1921. In spite of the excellent optical and electrical properties, furthermore, the ratio of the sheet resistance change of the Ag NW network increases to about 3 for the 250 bending times16.…”

AZO electrodes deposited by atomic layer deposition for OLED fabrication

“…However, the cost of using indium, as a dopant is high due to its scarce characteristic and it degrades the performance of OLEDs due to its diffusion into the organic materials [2]. Therefore, various TCOs, such as ZnO (zinc oxide) based TCO [1], conducting polymer [3], nanometal and carbon nanotubes [4] [5], have been investigated and applied in OLEDs. Among them, Aldoped zinc oxide (AZO) films are favourable materials as an alternative TCO film owing to their low cost, nontoxic, and relative abundance.…”