Donal Bradley

Abstract:

We report the use of solution-processed thin-film organic photodiodes for microscale chemiluminescence. The active layer of the photodiodes comprised a 1 : 1 blend by weight of the conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) [P3HT] and [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid-methylester [PCBM]--a soluble derivative of C(60). The devices had an active area of 1 mm x 1 mm, and a broad-band response from 350 to 700 nm, with an external quantum efficiency of more than 50% between 450 and 550 nm. The photodiodes have a simple layered structure that permits facile integration with planar chip-based systems. To evaluate the suitability of the organic devices as integrated detectors for microscale chemiluminescence, a peroxyoxalate based chemiluminescence reaction (PO-CL) was monitored within a poly(dimethyl-siloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic device. Quantitation of hydrogen peroxide indicated excellent linearity and yielded a detection limit of 10 microM, comparable with previously reported results using micromachined silicon microfluidic chips with integrated silicon photodiodes. The combination of organic photodiodes with PDMS microfluidic chips offers a means of creating compact, sensitive and potentially low-cost microscale CL devices with wide-ranging applications in chemical and biological analysis and clinical diagnostics.

Abstract:

We present electroabsorption (EA) technique measurements of internal electric fields in poly(9,9'-dioctylfluorene)(PFO)-based multilayer polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) with and without an interfacial layer between the hole conducting layer and the emissive layer. There is a strong internal electric field screening effect for the interfacial material-based PLEDs, which can explain the significant improvement of the device efficiency caused by adding a 10nm layer of poly(9,9-dioctyl-fluorene-co-N-(4-butylphenyl)- diphenylamine) (TFB) between a poly(styrene sulphonate)-doped poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT:PSS) layer and a PFO emissive layer.