Issue 47, 2018

Baking soda: an ultra-cheap and air stable electron injection layer for organic electronic devices

Abstract

To realize high performance printed organic optoelectronic devices, the development of air-stable, cheap, and solution-processable electron injection layers (EILs) is urgently required to avoid the use of a low work-function metal electrode with poor air stability. We report sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, NaHCO3) as an efficient, low-cost, air-stable, and environmentally friendly EIL material in various printed organic electronic devices including organic solar cells (OSCs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic photodiodes (OPDs) and n-channel organic thin film transistors (OFETs). UV photoelectron spectroscopy results indicated that the work-function of various common electrodes used for organic devices such as ITO, Au, Al and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) decreased significantly by more than 1 eV following deposition of a thin NaHCO3 film. The performance and stability of these organic devices improved by around 15% overall with ultra-cheap, air stable EILs. In particular, high performance OSCs based on PTB7:PC71BM with a power conversion efficiency of 8.40% and solution processed OLEDs based on PVK:PBD:Ir(ppy)3 with light emitting efficiencies of 68.5 cd A−1 and 20 lm A−1 were achieved by applying a NaHCO3 interlayer.

Graphical abstract: Baking soda: an ultra-cheap and air stable electron injection layer for organic electronic devices

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Sep 2018
Accepted
05 Nov 2018
First published
06 Nov 2018

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018,6, 12871-12878

Baking soda: an ultra-cheap and air stable electron injection layer for organic electronic devices

D. X. Long and Y. Noh, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 12871 DOI: 10.1039/C8TC04421J

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