OLED를 위한 저분자 재결정 방지 코팅 기술

Recrystallization-Free Coating of Small Molecules for OLEDs

We investigate the solution coating process of organic small molecules that are easily recrystallized in a solvent. The spin-coated films of small molecule N,N'-diphenly-N,N'-bis(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine (NPB) exhibit many aggregations on the surface and thus poor surface morphology. To tackle it, we have added a chain-entangled polymer poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) into the NPB solution. It is found that a small amount of PVK indeed prohibits the recrystallization of NPB in a solvent. By the addition of PVK (30 wt%), the peak-to-peak roughness of the films is reduced from 262 nm down to 2.7 nm, which is even lower than that (~5.1 nm) of the polymer film. It is also demonstrated that OLED with the PVK-mixed NPB film shows higher current and power efficiencies, compared to OLED with the NPB or PVK film. It is attributed that the addition of PVK into NPB suppresses the occurrence of leaky channels induced by the recrystallization phenomenon.