Designing interfaces that function to facilitate charge injection in organic light-emitting diodes.

Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly of triarylamine (TAA)-containing polymers has been applied for anode functionalizations in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Surface work function of the ITO electrodes was significantly altered with the functionalizations, and the values changed depending on electron affinity of the substituents (X) on the TAA units. When the functionalized ITO electrodes were utilized for the conventional TPD/Alq OLED, the multilayers of P1 (X = 4-OMe) and P2 (X = none) were found to promote better energy matching at the ITO/TPD interface to reduce the hole injection barrier. Furthermore, the multilayers having heterodeposited structure of several TAA polymers provided stepped and graded electronic profiles to facilitate hole mobility from ITO to TPD, so that the resulting OLED devices can exhibit appreciably reduced turn-on voltage and higher luminous intensities.