Optimization the potential of solution process fluorine passivated zinc oxide electron transport layer for stable InP-quantum dot light emitting diodes

The pervasive use of zinc oxide (ZnO) as an electron transport layer in quantum dot (QD) electroluminescent devices is constrained due to its chemical instability with the QD layer and the formation of interface quenching sites. The effect of fluorine passivation of sol-gel processed ZnO in QD light-emitting devices (QLEDs) is investigated in depth. An examination of the interaction between the ZnO surface and fluorine species revealed that the passivation of oxygen vacancies and the formation of stable hydrogen bonds with hydroxyl groups on ZnO surface have a significant influence on the stability and efficiency of the device. Such exceptional functions of fluorine have been found to effectively capture defects at the interface between ZnO and the emissive layer, therefore mitigating the interface quenching sites. The initial fluorination device demonstrated a significant improvement in external quantum efficiency (EQE) from 5.72 % to 20.07 %, and half of the device lifetime (LT50 at an initial luminance of 1500 cd m⁻²) was 286 h. Further passivating the remaining active oxygen on the ZnO surface can extend the stability of the device to 542 h with an EQE of 15.2 %, which is among the longest lifetime reported so far for green InP-QLEDs. Our report offers the possibility of utilizing straightforward and highly effective fluorination by spin-coating technique to attain long-lasting InP-QLED devices with remarkable performance.