Unraveled Face-Dependent Effects of Multilayered Graphene Embedded in Transparent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Abstract

With increasing demand for transparent conducting electrodes, graphene has attracted considerable attention, owing to its high electrical conductivity, high transmittance, low reflectance, flexibility, and tunable work function. Two faces, of single-layer graphene are indistinguishable in its nature, and this idea has not been doubted even in multilayered graphene (MLG) because it is difficult to separately characterize the front (first-born) and the rear face (last-born) of MLG by using conventional analysis tools, such as Raman and ultraviolet spectroscopy, scanning probe microscopy, and sheet resistance. In this paper, we report the striking difference of the emission pattern and performance of transparent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) depending on the adopted face of MLG and show the resolved chemical and physical states of both faces by using depth-selected absorption spectroscopy. Our results strongly support that the interface property between two different materials rules over the bulk property in the driving performance of OLEDs. © 2017 American Chemical Society