Use of silane-functionalized graphene oxide in organic photovoltaic cells and organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) and silane-functionalized GO (sGO) sheets obtained through a simple sonication exfoliation method are employed as hole transport layers to improve the efficiency of organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). GO was functionalized using (3-glycidyl oxypropyl)trimethoxysilane (GPTMS) and triethoxymethylsilane (MTES). The appearance of new peaks in the Fourier-transform infrared spectra of the sGOs indicates the formation of Si–O–C, Si–O–Si, Si–H, and Si–O–C moieties, which provide evidence of the addition of silane to the GO surface. Furthermore, the appearance of Si–O–Si bonds in the synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectra (SRPES) of the MTES-sGO and GPTMS-sGO samples suggests that silane groups were effectively functionalized onto the GO sheets. An OPV cell with GO layers showed a lower performance with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.06%; in contrast, OPV cells based on GPTMS-sGO and MTES-sGO have PCE values of 3.00 and 3.08%, respectively. The OLED devices based on GPTMS-sGO and MTES-sGO showed a higher maximum luminance efficiency of 13.91 and 12.77 cd A⁻¹, respectively, than PEDOT:PSS-based devices (12.34 cd A⁻¹). The SRPES results revealed that the work functions of GO, GPTMS-sGO, and MTES-sGO were 4.8, 4.9, and 5.0 eV, respectively. Therefore, the increase in the PCE value is attributed to improved band-gap alignment. It is thought that sGO could be used as an interfacial layer in OPV and OLED devices.