Hydrophilic conjugated polymers for sustainable fabrication of deep-red light-emitting electrochemical cells

It is crucial to develop functional electronic materials that can be processed from green solvents to achieve environmentally sustainable and cost-efficient printing fabrication of organic electronic devices. Here, the design and cost-efficient synthesis of two hydrophilic and emissive conjugated polymers, TQ-OEG and TQ2F-OEG, are presented, which are rendered hydrophilic through the grafting of oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) solubilizing groups onto the thiophene-quinoxaline conjugated backbone and thereby can be processed from a water:ethanol solvent mixture. It is shown that the introduction of the OEG groups enables for a direct dissolution of salts by the neat polymer for the attainment of solid-state ion mobility. These properties are utilized for the design and development of light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs), the active materials of which can be solution cast from a water:ethanol-based ink. It is specifically shown that such an LEC device, comprising an optimized blend of the TQ2F-OEG emitter and a Li salt as the active material positioned between two air-stabile electrodes, delivers deep-red emission (peak wavelength = 670 nm) with a radiance of 185 µW m−2 at a low drive voltage of 2.3 V. This study contributes relevant information as to how polymers and LEC devices can be designed and fabricated to combine functionality with sustainability.