Issue 41, 2017

Flash-evaporated small molecule films toward low-cost and flexible organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

The high cost of vacuum thermal evaporation and the challenging fabrication of multilayer devices by the solution processing method restrict the commercialization of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Herein, we introduce a flash evaporation method where an organic film pre-coated on a silicon wafer is re-deposited by sudden exposure to high temperature (∼1000 °C) in a rough vacuum to fabricate small molecule-based multilayer OLEDs. The flash-evaporated organic films maintain the original molecular structure after flash evaporation. Compared with the random molecular orientation of spin-coated small molecule films, flash-evaporated films have a high degree of molecular orientation perpendicular to the substrate surface. As a result, flash-evaporated OLEDs exhibit improved efficiency with low roll-off compared with spin-coated devices. The successful fabrication of a flexible, large-area (20 × 20 mm2) OLED suggests the great potential of the flash evaporation method for fabricating flexible and large area OLEDs with low cost in the future.

Graphical abstract: Flash-evaporated small molecule films toward low-cost and flexible organic light-emitting diodes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Aug. 2017
Accepted
11 Sept. 2017
First published
13 Sept. 2017

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2017,5, 10721-10727

Flash-evaporated small molecule films toward low-cost and flexible organic light-emitting diodes

B. Wang, Z. Wang, J. Liang, M. Li, Y. Hu and L. Liao, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2017, 5, 10721 DOI: 10.1039/C7TC03529B

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