Suppression of electron trapping by quantum dot emitters using a grafted polystyrene shell

Abstract

A fundamental problem of adding chromophores to an organic host is that their smaller band gap leads to severe trapping of either electrons or holes, resulting in strongly unbalanced transport. We demonstrate that electron trapping by an inorganic quantum dot (QD) in a conjugated polymer host can be suppressed by functionalizing its shell with a thin insulating polystyrene layer. The polystyrene shell not only reduces trapping, but also suppresses detrapping of captured electrons, resulting in increased charging of the QDs with subsequent voltage scans, after initial charging, a red-emitting hybrid polymer:QD light-emitting diode is obtained with voltage independent electroluminescence spectrum and equal efficiency as the blue polymer host.