Interface-Assisted Perovskite Modulations for High-Performance Light-Emitting Diodes

Sammanfattning: Metal halide perovskites have emerged as a class of promising materials for a wide range of optoelectronic devices. Compared with traditional inorganic and organic semiconductors, perovskite materials can be easily processed via solution-based techniques at low temperatures and exhibit high photo-luminescence efficiency, outstanding colour purity, and superior charge transport properties, showing great promise for cost-effective and high-performance light-emitting diodes (LEDs).Since the first demonstration of room-temperature operating perovskite-based LEDs (PeLEDs) in 2014, various useful strategies on optimizing perovskite emissive materials and device structures have been developed, leading to notably enhanced device performance of PeLEDs during the last several years. Nevertheless, despite rapid progress in improving the external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of PeLEDs, which are now approaching those of commercialized technologies, the operational stability of state-of-the-art PeLEDs remains poor, presenting a critical challenge for their practical applications and commercialization. Besides, a majority of the optimization strategies demonstrated for PeLEDs derivate from those developed for either perovskite photovoltaics or prevailing light-emitting technologies, e.g., organic- and quantum-dot-based LEDs. Although these strategies are helpful, more comprehensive investigations and in-depth understanding of factors affecting the property of perovskite emissive layers and the device performance of ensuing PeLEDs are highly desirable to foster further advancements of this promising technology.In this thesis, we focus our study on near-infrared PeLEDs based on triiodide perovskite emissive layers processed from precursor solutions. We systematically investigate the critical effects of precursors, substrates, and additives on the film quality of perovskite emissive layers. With the indepth understanding of the perovskite crystallization process, we developed a range of effective interface-assisted strategies on modulating the perovskite emissive layers, which enable us to achieve PeLEDs with high EQEs and excellent long-term operational stability beyond the state-of-the-art.In the first study, we unveiled the synergistic effect of precursor stoichiometry and interfacial reactions for PeLEDs. We reveal that ZnO efficiently deprotonates the organic cations, which promotes the formation of highly emissive perovskites from precursor solution with excess organic components, leading to the achievement of PeLEDs with a high EQE of 19.6 %. In the second study, we presented that such ZnO deprotonation process of excess organic cations can also assist the cation exchange process between cesium-formamidinium (FA-Cs) cation exchange, enabling low-temperature fabrication of pure-phase Cs-FA mixed cation perovskite films with widely tunable emissions peaking between 715 nm and 800 nm as well as high-performance devices with peak EQEs over 15%.In spite of enhanced device efficiency realized by the perovskite crystallization modulation, this ZnO deprotonation process places a detrimental effect on the stability of the PeLEDs, which can be accelerated by Joule heating and high electric fields during the device operation. In the third study, we, therefore, demonstrated the role of ZnO in catalyzing an efficient amidation reaction between incorporated dicarboxylic acid additives and excess FAI, preventing the above-mentioned harmful interfacial reaction. With this strategy, the operational half lifetime of the resulting PeLEDs was improved to 682 hours at 20 mA/cm2 while maintaining a high device efficiency of 18.6%.In the last work, we emphasized that the rational design of molecular reactions between two additives (diamine and triacrylate) and perovskite components with the assistance of ZnO substrates can subsequently eliminate the negative effect introduced by additive, reduce the defect density and enhance the crystal orientation in the perovskite emissive layers. The rational understanding of interfacial interactions between perovskite, additives, and ZnO, enabled us to achieve PeLEDs with a device efficiency of 23.8% as well as an outstanding operational stability T70 (reduction to 70% of initial efficiency) lifetime of 290 hours at 20 mA/cm2.The study in this thesis developed effective interface-assisted modulation strategies for high-quality perovskites towards highly efficient and stable PeLEDs for commercialization. A thorough understanding of perovskite chemistry-property-performance modulation assisted by interfaces is indispensable for the future development of PeLEDs and our study took an important step.