Enhanced performance on polymeric light-emitting diode with non-metallic ion in the water soluble non-conjugated...

We have fabricated a polymer light-emitting diode (PLED) from the conventional blue-emitting polymer, polyfluorene (PFO), by constructing a multilayer structure with non-metal ion containing water soluble non-conjugated polymer, polyurethane with F- ion (PU:F-), on the top of the PFO. The device with PU:F- layer shows a maximum luminance of 5294 cd/m2 at an applied voltage of 10 V while the one without PU:F- layer shows only 4439 cd/m2 at the same applied voltage. We propose the improvement of device performance with PU:F- layer was due to not only an effective hole blocking at the polymer-polymer interface but also increase of electric field strength with anode after electro-stactic repulsion between electrons from the cathod and anions from the water soluble polymer layer. We will discuss the effect of multilayer polymer structure in PLED in terms of current/voltage characteristics, luminance, and quantum efficiency related with the applied bias.