Ultrasmooth, highly conductive and transparent PEDOT:PSS/silver nanowire composite electrode for flexible organic light-emitting devices

• A PEDOT:PSS/Ag NW composite electrode has been developed.
• The composite electrode exhibits ultrasmooth surface morphology.
• Both conductivity and transparency are simultaneously improved for the composite electrode.
• The composite electrode-based OLEDs exhibit a 25% enhancement in device efficiency.
• Highly flexible OLEDs with mechanical robustness based on the composite electrode have been realized.

The next generation of optoelectronic devices requires transparent conductive electrodes to be flexible, inexpensive and compatible with large scale manufacturing processes. We report an ultrasmooth, highly conductive and transparent composite electrode on a flexible photopolymer substrate by employing a template stripping method. A random silver nanowire (AgNW) network buried in poly(3,4ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) film constituted the composite electrode. Besides the effectively decreased surface roughness, its sheet resistance and transmittance are comparable to those of conventional PEDOT:PSS electrode. As a result, the efficiency of the OLEDs based on the composite electrode exhibited 25% enhancement compared to the OLEDs with conventional PEDOT:PSS electrode. Moreover, the performance of the flexible OLEDs remains stable after over one hundred bending cycles.

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