Photo-Crosslinkable Ligands for High-Density Patterning of Perovskite Nanocrystals

The patterning of luminescent quantum dots and nanocrystals into micron-sized pixels is required for applications in electronic color displays. In the recently-developed QD-OLED technology (Quantum Dot Organic Light-Emitting Diode), semiconducting quantum dots are deposited onto blue OLED display pixels by inkjet printing methods to enhance the color quality of the displays. However, inkjet printing is prone to alignment and clogging issues, which impacts the manufacturing yield of these devices. In this talk, I will discuss the development of new crosslinkable ligands that would allow high-density patterning of perovskite nanocrystals or quantum dots by photolithography techniques. Our new ligands attach to the nanocrystals via an entropy-driven ligand exchange process. The resulting nanocrystals could be deposited onto substrates and be patterned by a photo-initiated polymerization process, similar to well-established photolithography protocols that are used in the semiconductor industry.