Hybrid organic-inorganic light emitting diodes: Effect of Ag-doped ZnO

•Efficient hybrid organic-inorganic light-emitting diodes (HyLEDs) have been fabricated with an electron injection layer of newly synthesised zinc oxide and Ag-doped ZnO nanomaterials and emissive layer of and (E)-1-(naphthalen-1-yl)-2-styryl-1H phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole.•Nano zinc oxide and Ag-doped ZnO nanomaterials layer is inserted at the interface between indium tin oxide cathode and organic emitting layer.•(E)-1-(naphthalen-1-yl)-2-styryl-1H-phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole with high glass temperature (Tg) is expected to increase the thermal stability of HyLEDs.•The device with 2.0% Ag-doped ZnO nanomaterials show maximum luminance of 10982 cd/m2 and maximum current efficiency of 41.0 cd/A and power efficiency of 8.9 lm w−1 corresponds to the external quantum efficiency of 15.2% was obtained with 3.0% Ag-doped ZnO.

We have fabricated, characterized and compared efficiencies of hybrid light emitting diodes (HyLEDs) using Ag-doped ZnO and ZnO nanomaterials as electron injection layers [EIL] and imidazole (NSPI) as organic emitting later [ITO/ZnO or Ag-doped ZnO/NSPI/MoO3/Al]. A reduced optical band gap of the Ag-doped ZnO compared to pristine ZnO was observed which leads to decrease the valence band offset at Ag-doped ZnO: NSPI interface compared to ZnO: NSPI interface. The device with nano Ag-doped ZnO layer facilitates the electron injection more efficiently than the one with nano ZnO layer. The current density and luminance of the devices increased significantly by Ag-doped ZnO device at low driving voltage compared to the control device. The device with 2.0% Ag-doped ZnO nanomaterials show maximum luminance of 10982 cd/m2 and maximum current efficiency of 41.0 cd/A and power efficiency of 8.9 lm w−1 corresponds to the external quantum efficiency of 15.2% was obtained with 3.0% Ag-doped ZnO.

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