Selectively modulated inkjet printing of highly conductive and transparent foldable polymer electrodes for flexible polymer light-emitting diode applications

•We fabricate PLEDs with conductive polymer anode and bus electrodes deposited by inkjet printing.•Two doping elements NMP and NMF are included in the PEDOT:PSS electrode.•Thin and transparent anode was formed by 1-time inkjet printing for utilizing high transparency.•Thick bus electrodes were formed by 8-times inkjet printing for low resistance properties.•Our flexible PLEDs with high work function anodes show the high efficient characteristics.

High efficient flexible polymer light-emitting devices which composed with highly conductive and transparent foldable polymer electrodes were fabricated. New doping materials, n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and n-methylformamide (NMF), have much improved the conductivity of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). The selectively modulated inkjet-printing method facilitated the PEDOT:PSS’s application to both transparent anodes and highly conductive bus line electrodes. Multiple-time printed PEDOT:PSS electrodes showed a similar performance to Ag bus lines while one-time printed anode showed a much better figure of merit than that of ITO on plastic. Due to the flexible property, high transparency and high work function of the polymeric anode, ITO-free PLEDs showed a high performance with foldable characteristics.

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