In this study, we analyze the influence of the pore structure of an SBA-15 particle on the light emission from its inner adsorbed quantum dots (QDs) and outer light-emitting diode (LED) chips. It is found that the particle features of a high refractive index, comparable feature size of pore structure, and lower amount of QD adsorption help with QD light extraction, demonstrating a mechanism to suppress QD light propagating through pores and thus reducing the reabsorption loss. We consequently developed highly efficient QD white LEDs with wet-mixing QD/SBA-15 nanocomposite particles (NPs) by further optimizing the packaging methods and the introduced NP mass ratio. The LEDs demonstrated a record luminous efficacy (the ratio of luminous flux to electrical power) of 206.8 (entrusted test efficiency of 205.8 lm W-1 certificated by China National Accreditation Service) and 137.6 lm W-1 at 20 mA for white LEDs integrating only green QDs and green-red QD color convertors, respectively, with improved operating stability. These results are comparable to conventional phosphor-based white LEDs, which can be a starting point for white LEDs only using QDs as convertors toward commercialization in the near future.
Keywords: light-emitting diode; luminous efficacy; quantum dot; reabsorption; wide-color gamut.