Hole injection barriers at polymer anode/small molecule interfaces

A photoemission study of the interface between spin-cast films of a conducting polymer blend consisting of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and glycerol as an additive, and vacuum-evaporated hole transport layers (HTL) of 4,4′-bis(carbazol-9-yl)biphenyl, N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(1-naphthyl)-1-1′biphenyl-4,4′-diamine and N,N′-diphenyl-N,N′-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1,1′- biphenyl-4,4′-diamine reveals a hole injection barrier between 0.5 and 0.9 eV at the glycerol-modified PEDOT-PSS/HTL interface. The measured energy barriers imply a reasonable charge injection, which is very encouraging for further development of the novel anode structures based on a conducting polymer/small molecule interface to be utilized in electro-optic applications such as organic light-emitting devices.