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High performance inkjet-printed QLEDs with 18.3% EQE: improving interfacial contact by novel halogen-free binary solvent system

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Abstract

Poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt(4,4′-(N-(4-butylphenyl))] (TFB), one of the most popular and widely used hole-transport layer (HTL) materials, has been successfully applied in high performance spin-coated quantum dots-based light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) due to its suitable energy level and high mobility. However, there are still many challenging issues in inkjet-printed QLED devices when using TFB as HTL. TFB normally suffers from the interlayer mixing and erosion, and low surface energy against the good film formation. Here, a novel environment-friendly binary solvent system was established for formulating quantum dot (QD) inks, which is based on mixing halogen-free alkane solvents of decalin and n-tridecane. The optimum volume ratio for the mixture of decalin and n-tridecane was found to be 7:3, at which a stable ink jetting flow and coffee-ring free QD films could be formed. To research the influence of substrate surface on the formation of inkjet-printed QD films, TFB was annealed at different temperatures, and the optimum annealing temperature was found to enable high quality inkjet-printed QD film. Inkjet-printed red QLED was ultimately manufactured. A maximum 18.3% of external quantum efficiency (EQE) was achieved, reaching 93% of the spin-coated QLED, which is the best reported high efficiency inkjet-printed red QLEDs to date. In addition, the inkjet-printed QLED achieved similar T75 operational lifetime (27 h) as compared to the spin-coated reference QLED (28 h) at 2,000 cd·m−2. This work demonstrated that the novel orthogonal halogen-free alkane co-solvents can improve the interfacial contact and facilitate high-performance inkjet printing QLEDs with high EQE and stability.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFB0401600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1605244) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2020M681726).

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Author notes

  1. Ming Chen and Liming Xie contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Printable Electronics Research Center, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Ming Chen, Liming Xie, Changting Wei, Yuan-Qiu-Qiang Yi, Xiaolian Chen, Jian Yang, Wenming Su & Zheng Cui

  2. Guangdong Juhua Printed Display Technol Company Ltd., Guangzhou, 510700, China

    Jinyong Zhuang

  3. Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350002, China

    Fushan Li

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  1. Ming Chen
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Correspondence to Wenming Su.

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High performance inkjet-printed QLEDs with 18.3% EQE: improving interfacial contact by novel halogen-free binary solvent system

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Chen, M., Xie, L., Wei, C. et al. High performance inkjet-printed QLEDs with 18.3% EQE: improving interfacial contact by novel halogen-free binary solvent system. Nano Res. 14, 4125–4131 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3352-9

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