Interfacial engineering of graphene for highly efficient blue and white organic light-emitting devices

Graphene as anodes of flexible organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) has intrinsic drawbacks of a low work function and a high sheet resistance although it can eliminate the brittle feature of ITO. Chemical doping as a conventional approach is universally used to decrease the sheet resistance and adjust the work function of graphene electrodes, but it suffers from instability problems due to the volatility of chemical species. Here, an insulated poly(4-styrenesulphonate) (PSS) modification layer is firstly coated on the graphene surface along with improved air-stability and hole-injection ability via interfacial dipoles. Besides, the utilization of PSS is beneficial to reduce the leakage current of OLEDs. Then a gradient injection layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):PSS (PEDOT:PSS)/tetrafluoroethyleneperfluoro-3,6-dioxa-4-methyl-7-octenesulphonic acid copolymer-doped PEDOT:PSS is covered onto the PSS-modified graphene to further promote hole injection and improve carrier balance inside OLEDs. With above interfacial modification technique, very high efficiencies of 201.9 cd A(−1) (76.1 lm W(−1), 45.2%) and 326.5 cd A(−1) (128.2 lm W(−1), 99.5%) for blue and white emissions are obtained, which are comparable to the most efficient display and lighting technologies so far.