Development of hybrid nanocrystal/conducting polymer optoelectronic devices

Novel hybrid inorganic nanocrystal/conducting polymer optoelectronic devices have gained extensive interest due to the benefits of ease of processing, low cost, substrate flexibility, large area coverage and size-tunable absorption/emissions.;This dissertation reports the development of photovoltaic devices and light emitting diodes (LED) based on semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots (NQD). First, a PbSe NQD/P3HT thin film photovoltaic was developed with the capability of utilizing infrared energy. The device performance is further improved by employing new device architecture. Second a PbSe NQD-based LED with strong infrared emission was developed, an energy transfer between NQD and polymer was proved to be the dominant mechanism for infrared emission. A surface engineering of PbSe NQD enables better carrier injection and results in a most efficient infrared QD-LED reported so far. Finally patterning techniques for QD-LED display was developed by means of mist deposition technique. The advances in blue quantum dots synthesis also led to the fabrication of a bright and color-saturated blue QD-LED.