Development of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks and quantum dots-polymer nanocomposites for low-cost, flexible OLED display application

Recently, tremendous progress has been made toward the application of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) in full color flat panel displays and other devices. This article reviews and discusses our recent progress in extended development of emissive semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (E-semi-IPNs) and hybrid quantum dots (QDs)-polymer nanocomposites for use in multicolor and multilayer OLED pixels through low-cost solution processing. Our semi-IPNs with high solvent resistance, containing an inert polymer network and conjugated polymers, served in different layers of OLED devices. These semi-IPNs do not require complicated chemical modification to OLED materials; therefore, many state-of-the-arts conjugated polymers can be utilized to achieve red-green-blue and white OLEDs by tuning formulations. Our research findings on hybrid QD-oligomer nanocomposites lead to the successful design and synthesis of QD-polymer hybrid nanocomposites, which were used to build proof-of-the-concept devices showing good promise in providing excellent color purity and stability from QDs and solution processability from hybrid nanocomposites.