Carrier transport of inverted quantum dot LED with PEIE polymer

An inverted-type quantum-dot light-emitting-diode (QD LED), employing low-work function organic material polyethylenimine ethoxylated (PEIE) as electron injection layer, was fabricated by all solution processing method, excluding anode electrode. From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies, it was confirmed that CdSe@ZnS QDs with 7 nm size were uniformly distributed as a monolayer on PEIE layer. In this inverted QD LED, two kinds of hybrid organic materials, [poly (9,9-di-n-octyl-fluorene-alt-benzothiadiazolo)(F8BT) + poly(N,N′-bis(4-butylphenyl)-N,N′-bis(phenyl)benzidine (poly-TPD)] and [4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) + poly-TPD], were adopted as hole transport layer having high highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level for improving hole transport ability. At a low-operating voltage of 8 V, the device emits orange and red spectral radiation with high brightness up to 2450 and 1420 cd/m2, and luminance efficacy of 1.4 cd/A and 0.89 cd/A, respectively, at 7 V applied bias. Also, the carrier transport mechanisms for the QD LEDs are described by using several models to fit the experimental I–V data.