Efficient All-Blade-Coated Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes through Solvent Engineering

Abstract

Blade-coating is a potential method for preparing all-solution-processed quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) because of its high material utilization and large-scale preparation compatibility. However, it is a challenge to prepare uniform-emitting, high-performance QLEDs by blade coating because of film uniformity issues. Here, we report an efficient all-blade-coated QLED through solvent engineering. A binary water/methanol solvent is used to decrease the surface tension, leading to uniform blade-coating poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) films. The binary solvent also enhances hole transport abilities because of phase separations and chain reorientations of PEDOT and PSS chains. The uniformity of a poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) layer is also improved by using a chlorobenzene/toluene binary solvent to facilitate the spontaneous spreading of the PVK solution on the substrate. This enables the successful preparation of an efficient QLED with a maximum external quantum efficiency of 12.48%, which is about 2.6 times the value of the QLED without solvent engineering.