Room-Temperature Sol–Gel Derived Molybdenum Oxide Thin Films for Efficient and Stable Solution-Processed Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Molybdenum oxide (MoO3) thin films were prepared by sol-gel methods at room temperature from the precursors of MoO3 powder mixing into NH3 or H2O2 solution and then directly treated by UV-ozone instead of widely used high-temperature annealing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) characteristics demonstrated that the room-temperature sol-gel derived MoO3 thin films exhibited excellent uniformity, unchanged chemical structure, and high work function. For the first time, the novel solution-processed MoO3 thin films were successfully applied as the hole injection layers (HILs) for solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The efficiencies of the resulting OLEDs were comparable or even higher than that of the device using PEDOT:PSS as the HIL. More importantly, the lifetimes of the solution-processed OLEDs are improved by nearly 2 orders of magnitude. This study should provide a potential approach to develop low-cost, high-performance, and long-lifetime OLEDs for practical applications.