High-performance red-inverted polymer light emitting diodes enhanced via coupled-Au NPs induced local surface plasmon resonance

Abstract

The surface plasmons of coupled-Au NPs can improve the performance of solution-processed red-inverted polymer light-emitting diodes (iPLEDs) when the blends of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV): (poly(2-(4-(3′,7′-dimethyloctyloxyphenyl)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene (P-PPV) is applied as the active layer, which exhibited the improved brightness from 2006 to 4025 cd m −2 (1.0-fold enhancement), the enhanced luminous efficiency from 0.82 to 1.82 cd A −1 (1.2-fold enhancement), and the increased power efficiency from 0.20 to 0.44 lm·W −1 (1.2-fold enhancement). The experimental results show that it is mainly attributed to the original surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band in the short wavelength that enhance the förster resonance energy transfer efficiency from P-PPV to MEH-PPV, and the new SPR band in the long wavelength that improve the blends polymer fluorescence emission. The results demonstrate that the coupled-Au NPs pave an effective route to achieve high performance red-based inverted polymer light-emitting diodes, which expand the spectra range based on the SPR effect of Au NPs. The surface plasmons of coupled-Au NPs can enhance the performance of red-inverted polymer light-emitting diodes based on MEH-PPV:P-PPV. The main surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band enhance the förster resonance energy transfer from P-PPV to MEH-PPV, the newly SPR band improve the polymer fluorescence emission of MEH-PPV. • It is one of the best performance enhancements in red-based iPLEDs when coupling Au NPs. • The short and long wavelength SPR bands enhance the energy transfer efficiency and fluorescence emission, respectively. • The efficiency improvements demonstrate that the LSPR effect of coupled NPs could be versatile in visible spectral range.