Photophysical dynamics of excitons in polyaniline nanotubes with enhanced resistance against exciton quenching for applications in flexible high-efficiency PLEDs

Abstract

The development of a high-efficiency polymer light-emitting diode is strongly hindered by injected charge carriers in the emissive polymer layer. But real-time identification of the interactions that quench the photoluminescence is extremely difficult owing to the complex photophysics of polymers involved in it. Here, we have synthesized the polyaniline nanotubes to study interactions at the nanoscale within the emissive layer. Acid doping of PAni helped us to quantify the processes that suppress the emission, e.g., Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) and charge transfer (CT). We have developed a material design perspective by demonstrating how an effective increase in conjugation length of PAni nanochain through 1D nanostructure growth can avoid the undesired emission quenching due to exciton quenching by the polarons. We have demonstrated how this approach helped us to preserve up to 95 % of the emission, which would otherwise be lost by exciton-polaron quenching interaction. Exploration of this new strategy could be a way forward for both fundamental and application aspects to enhance the emission efficiency of the conducting conjugate polymers and emissive layers in flexible polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs).