Study and comparison of conducting polymer hole injection layers in light emitting devices

A set of polyaniline- and poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-based materials were studied as hole injection layers in polymer light emitting devices. The choice of polymeric counterion/dopant poly(styrenesulfonic acid), and poly(acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid), and poly(acrylamide) blended with polyaniline/poly(acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) was found to influence both work function and film morphology, which in turn affects device performance. The work functions of the polymer films spanned the range of over 1 eV and the surface region of the films were found to be low in conducting polymer content compared to the bulk. This was particularly the case of the polyaniline/poly(acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid) blended with poly(acrylamide) which showed device efficiency equal to that of the poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonic acid) reference. The turn on voltage, however, was significantly larger, likely due to the insulating poly(acrylamide)-rich surface region of the polyaniline/poly(acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid)/poly(acrylamide) film. The polymer blend of polyaniline/poly(styrenesulfonic acid) yielded the highest work function (5.5 ± 0.1 eV).