Voltage-induced electroluminescence characteristics of hybrid light-emitting diodes with CdSe/Cd/ZnS core-shell nanoparticles embedded in a conducting polymer on plastic substrates

Abstract

We investigate the electroluminescence (EL) characteristics of a hybrid light-emitting diode (HyLED) with an emissive layer comprised of CdSe/Cd/ZnS core-shell nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in poly(9,9-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO) on a plastic substrate. The EL characteristics change dramatically with increasing of the biased voltage. At low voltages, recombination of electrons and holes occurs only in the PFO film because of poor charge transfer in the PFO-CdSe/Cd/ZnS NPs composite film, while the color of the light-emitting from the HyLED changes from blue to red as the biased voltage increases from 7.5 to 17.5V. We examine and discuss the mechanism of this color tunability. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.