Improving the performance of MEH-PPV based light emitting diode by incorporation of graphene nanosheets

The effect of incorporation of graphene nanosheets on the efficiency of poly [2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylenel (MEH-PPV) based light emitting diodes (LED) has been examined by varying the graphene concentration from 0 to 0.1 wt%. It was observed that graphene doping enhances the photoluminescence (PL) emission from the PPV layer by similar to 6 times at the blending concentration of 0.005 wt%. This is attributed to the isolation of individual polymer chains that quenches the inter-chain relaxations and boosts the intra-chain transitions. The improvement in device luminance is also found to be similar to 6 times as compared to that with MEH-PPV only LED at 0.005 wt% graphene concentration. This is due to the high charge carrier mobility in graphene nanostructure that assists in balancing the charge carrier concentration in the emissive layer. Also due to its low LUMO level, graphene improves electron injection from the cathode. Both these effects lead to enhancement in the device luminescence. Employment of graphene in this manner also leads to lowering of turn-on voltage of the device. This is attributed to the ability of graphene sheets to establish an interconnected conducting network in the polymer matrix that lowers the device resistance. However, at higher graphene concentration, this property short circuits the device structure, which greatly deteriorates its performance. The graphene concentration, therefore, should be kept below the percolation threshold level to develop high efficiency devices. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.