Effect of thermal annealing Super Yellow emissive layer on efficiency of OLEDs

Samantha Burns; Jennifer MacLeod; Thu Trang Do; Prashant Sonar; Soniya D Yambem

doi:10.1038/srep40805

Effect of thermal annealing Super Yellow emissive layer on efficiency of OLEDs

Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 20:7:40805. doi: 10.1038/srep40805.

Authors

Samantha Burns¹, Jennifer MacLeod^{1

2}, Thu Trang Do¹, Prashant Sonar¹, Soniya D Yambem^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia.
² Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia.
³ Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4053, Australia.

Abstract

Thermal annealing of the emissive layer of an organic light emitting diode (OLED) is a common practice for solution processable emissive layers and reported annealing temperatures varies across a wide range of temperatures. We have investigated the influence of thermal annealing of the emissive layer at different temperatures on the performance of OLEDs. Solution processed polymer Super Yellow emissive layers were annealed at different temperatures and their performances were compared against OLEDs with a non-annealed emissive layer. We found a significant difference in the efficiency of OLEDs with different annealing temperatures. The external quantum efficiency (EQE) reached a maximum of 4.09% with the emissive layer annealed at 50 °C. The EQE dropped by ~35% (to 2.72%) for OLEDs with the emissive layers annealed at 200 °C. The observed performances of OLEDs were found to be closely related to thermal properties of polymer Super Yellow. The results reported here provide an important guideline for processing emissive layers and are significant for OLED and other organic electronics research communities.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't