Basic Amino Acids Modulated Neutral-pH PEDOT:PSS for Stable Blue Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes.

State-of-the-art external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) have exceeded 20% for near-infrared, red, and green perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) so far. Nevertheless, the cutting-edge blue counterparts demonstrate an inferior device performance, which impedes the commercialization and industrialization of PeLEDs in ultrahigh-definition displays. As the most popular hole transport layer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) bears the acidic and hygroscopic drawbacks, which deteriorates the device efficiency and long-term stability of blue PeLEDs. In this work, the basic amino acids with zwitterionic characteristics are proposed to modulate the pH of PEDOT:PSS, which are arginine, lysine, and histidine. It is found that they play a triple function to the blue perovskite films: modulating the acidity of PEDOT:PSS, controlling the crystalline process, and passivating the defects at the PEDOT:PSS/perovskite interface. As a result, the utilization of neutral PEDOT:PSS leads to a significant enhancement in stability and photoluminescence quantum yield. Eventually, the pure-blue PeLEDs achieve a record EQE of 5.6% with the emission peak at 467 nm. This research proves that the interfacial engineering of hole transport layers is a reliable strategy to enhance the device efficiency and operation stability of blue PeLEDs.