Nature of charge carriers in long doped oligothiophenes: The effect of counterions

A series of oligothiophene dications doped with Cl3 - ions were studied using density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP/6-31G(d) level. The balance between the bipolaron and polaron pair states was addressed by studying the closed-shell singlet, open-shell singlet, and triplet states of oligothiophene divalent salts using the relative energies of the different isomers, differences between the singlet and triplet states, bond length alternation analysis, charge distribution analysis, and isodesmic reactions. We found that contribution of polaron pair state to the electronic structure of the oligothiophene divalent salts is not observed in 8T2+(Cl3́ -)2 (short oligothiophene salts), appears in 12T 2+(Cl3 -)2 (medium-sized oligothiophene salts), and becomes the dominant in 20T2+(Cl 3 -)2 (long oligothiophene salts). Bipolarons are intrinsically unstable with respect to dissociation into polaron pairs regardless of the presence of counterions. Thus, even in the presence of counterions, we did not observe any bipolaron stabilization energy, however, doping ions localize polarons. The singlet and triplet states are energetically degenerate for long oligothiophene divalent salts, such as 20T 2+(Cl3 -)2. © 2008 American Chemical Society

ITO free OLEDs utilizing inkjet printed and low temperature plasma sintered Ag electrodes

We report an inkjet printed indium tin oxide ITO free electrode made from a particle free silver ink. After printing, an argon plasma is used to reduce the silver ions in the ink to metallic silver. This process does not require high temperatures and is therefore suitable for use with temperature sensitive substrates. Printed silver layers show good optical transmittance and electrical conductivity. To demonstrate the capabilities of the electrodes, inverted ITO free organic light emitting diodes OLEDs were produced via solution processing. In terms of luminance and efficacy, the devices containing the printed electrodes show improved luminance and current efficacy compared to ITO based reference devices. When fabricated with flexible substrates, the printed OLEDs show high bending stability, enabling flexible application

A guide to qualitative haze measurements demonstrated on inkjet printed silver electrodes for flexible OLEDs

The search for alternative transparent electrodes to the commonly used indium tin oxide ITO in optoelectronic devices has led to solution based approaches based on inkjet printing. As an additive manufacturing technique that allows drops to be positioned only where necessary, inkjet printing shows reduced waste of starting material compared to other methods such as spin coating. As a result, functional materials can be both coated and structured without the need for masks or lithographic pre patterning of the substrate. For this contribution, we utilized a particle free silver ink to produce a transparent electrode by inkjet printing. After printing, the silver ions were reduced to metallic silver by an argon plasma. The process takes place at low temperatures ca. 40 50 C , making it suitable for use with flexible substrates, which are often temperature sensitive. The printed silver layers show good electrical conductivity and optical transmittance, with a crystalline grain structure being formed and maintained during the metallization process. This structure forms a self organized nanometer size grid, whose structure allows light to pass through. Due to its nano structured property, the haze of the electrode was investigated using a simple experimental setup based on a light source shining through the electrode and analyzing the size of the projected pattern. Such qualitative assessment can be a useful indication of the quality of the electrode and we provide details on how to replicate this setup. The final electrodes were implemented in solution processed OLEDs, which showed bright luminance and overall low haze compared to ITO based reference device