Degradation Mechanisms in Small-Molecule Organic Electronic Devices

Over the last decades organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic solar cells (OSCs) have gained considerable attention as efficient, flexible, lightweight, and potentially low-cost technology for lighting and display applications or as a renewable energy source, respectively. However, achieving long-term stability remains challenging. Revealing and understanding aging processes is therefore of great interest. This work presents fundamental investigations to understand and circumvent organic device degradation. In the first part, single materials used in organic devices were investigated. By tailoring an attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectrometer to the specific needs and subsequent measurements, it is shown that the tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum (Alq3) molecule, a well known fluorescent green emitter, degrades during air exposure by the formation of carbonyl groups. By using a laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometer (LDI-TOF-MS) it was shown that a,w-bis-(dicyanovinylen)-sexithiophen (DCV6T-Bu4), a well known small-molecule material which is used as part of the active layer, reacts with oxygen during ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. By using climate boxes and a sun simulator the impact of dry and humid air as well as sunlight on C60, a widely-used acceptor molecule in organic solar cells, was investigated. The breaking of the C60 cage to C58 and C56 and the further reaction of these components with oxygen as well as the dimerization of C58 and C56 molecules were found. The degradation products such as C58O increase with air exposure time but they are independent of the humidity level of the ambient air as well as sunlight irradiation. Subsequent annealing leads to a decrease of the C58O concentration. Many efficient n-dopants are prone to degradation in air, due to the low ionization potentials, thereby limiting the processing conditions. It was found that the air exposure of the highly efficient n-dopant tetrakis(1,3,4,6,7,8-hexahydro-2H-pyrimido[1,2-a]pyrimidinato)ditungsten(II) (W2(hpp)4) leads to oxidation reactions of the molecule to [W(hpp)2 + O] and other degradation products. The decay constant of W2(hpp)4 and the matching mean growth time of the [W(hpp)2 + O] degradation as well as a second very quick degradation of the dopant could be determined. The two decay constants can be explained by the assumption that W2(hpp)4 molecules, which are involved in the charge transfer, do degrade slower due to the fact that the charge transfer leads to a downshift of the energy levels of the W2(hpp)4 molecule. Apart from the properties of the organic materials, other effects such as the impact of different purification systems on the material purity as well as the dependence of material purity on the OLED lifetime has been investigated. No correlations between the purification grade and the amount of impurities were found. OLEDs which contain N,N\'-di(naphthalen-1-yl)-N,N\'-diphenyl-benzidine (alpha-NPD) purified in a vertically interlaced stainless steel sublimation systems shows slightly higher external quantum efficiencies compared to tube-based vacuum sublimation systems. The devices which contain alpha-NPD purified by a sublimation system have an extended lifetime. Finally, the impact of residual gases during device fabrication on OLED lifetime and electrical characteristics was investigated. It was found that water vapor introduces an additional series resistance to the OLED, while the other gases do not influence the electric characteristics. The presence of nitrogen or oxygen impacts the lifetime of the OLEDs by the same amount. Nitrogen is non-reactive, this leads to the conclusion that the influence of nitrogen and oxygen on the OLED lifetime is of non-chemical nature, such as changes in the morphology of the organic layers. Water vapor introduces an additional, even faster degradation process within the first hours of OLED operation. As major sources of device degradation, the dimerization of 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BPhen) as well as the complexation reaction of alpha-NPD with a bis(1-phenylisoquinoline)iridium(III) (Ir(piq)2) fragment was identified