Synthesis of atomically thin transition metal disulfides for charge transport layers in optoelectronic devices

ACS Nano. 2015 Apr 28;9(4):4146-55. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5b01504. Epub 2015 Mar 25.

Abstract

Metal sulfides (MeS2) such as MoS2 and WS2 were used as charge transport layers in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells in order to enhance the stability in air comparing to poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (

Pedot: PSS). MeS2 layers with a polycrystalline structure were synthesized by a chemical deposition method using uniformly spin-coated (NH4)MoS4 and (NH4)WS4 precursor solutions. The ultraviolet-ozone (UV-O3) treatment on MeS2 leads to the removal of the surface contaminants produced by the transfer process, resulting in a uniform surface and an increase of the work function. The maximum luminance efficiencies of the OLEDs with UV-O3-treated MoS2 and WS2 were 9.44 and 10.82 cd/A, respectively. The power conversion efficiencies of OPV cells based on UV-O3-treated MoS2 and WS2 were 2.96 and 3.08%, respectively. These values correspond to over 95% of those obtained with (

Pedot: PSS) based devices. Furthermore, OLEDs and OPV cells based on MeS2 showed two to six times longer stability in air compared with

Pedot: PSS based devices. These results suggest that UV-O3-surface-treated MeS2 could be a promising candidate for a charge transport layer in optoelectronic devices.

Keywords: chemical vapor deposition; hole injection layer; organic light-emitting diodes; organic photovoltaics; transition metal disulfide.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't