Conjugated Polyelectrolyte Blend with Polyethyleneimine Ethoxylated for Thickness-Insensitive Electron Injection Layers in Organic Light-Emitting Devices

Electron injection layers (EILs) based on a simple polymer blend of polyethyleneimine ethoxylated (PEIE) and poly[(9,9-bis(3'-(( N, N-dimethyl)- N-ethylammonium)-propyl)-2,7-fluorene)- alt-2,7-(9,9-dioctylfluorene)] (PFN-Br) can suppress the dependence of organic light-emitting device (OLED) performance on thickness variation compared with single PEIE or PFN-Br EILs. PEIE and PFN-Br were compatible with each other and PFN-Br uniformly mixed in the PEIE matrix. PFN-Br in PEIE formed more fluorene-fluorene pairs than PFN-Br alone. In addition, PEIE:PFN-Br blends reduced the work function (WF) substantially compared with single PEIE or PFN-Br polymer. PEIE:PFN-Br blends were applied to EILs in fluorescent polymer-based OLEDs. Optimized PEIE:PFN-Br blend EIL-based devices presented lower driving voltages and smaller dependences of device performance on EIL thickness than single PEIE or PFN-Br-based devices. These improvements were attributed to electron-transporting fluorene moieties, increased fluorene-fluorene pairs working as channels of electron transport, and the large WF reduction effect of PEIE:PFN-Br blends.