Influence of Shell Thickness on the Performance of NiO-Based All-Inorganic Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes

The effect of shell thickness on the performance of all-inorganic quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) is explored by employing a series of green quantum dots (QDs) (ZnxCd1–xSe/ZnS core/shell QDs with different ZnS shell thicknesses) as the emitters. ZnO nanoparticles and sol–gel NiO are employed as the electron and hole transport materials, respectively. Time-resolved and steady-state photoluminescence results indicate that positive charging processes might occur for the QDs deposited on NiO, which results in emission quenching of QDs and poor device performance. The thick shell outside the core in QDs not only largely suppresses the QD emission quenching but also effectively preserves the excitons in QDs from dissociation of electron–hole pairs when they are subjected to an electric field. The peak efficiency of 4.2 cd/A and maximum luminance of 4205 cd/m2 are achieved for the device based on QDs with the thickest shells (∼4.2 nm). We anticipate that these results will spur progress toward the design and realization of efficient all-inorganic QLEDs as a platform for the QD-based full-colored displays.