Abstract
A novel biological material, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), as a genetic substance, has attracted much attention in genetic engineering and in nanotechnology. Over the last decade, DNA materials have high potential to be utilized in optoelectronic devices owing to several unique features of DNA molecules. In this work, we incorporated gold nanoparticles into DNA biopolymer to synthesize gold nanoparticle/DNA biopolymer nanocomposite and was implemented in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The device structure consisted of ITO/PEDOT:PSS (50 nm)/Au-DNA nanocomposite (20 nm)/NPB (40 nm)/BCP (20 nm)/Alq3 (20 nm)/LiF (1 nm)/Al (100 nm). The DNA biopolymer attributed to a high level of lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) to play the role of electron blocking layer (EBL) of OLEDs and Au nanoparticles were the hole trap in the nanocomposite layer to retard the hole mobility. We evaluated performances between OLEDs using Au-DNA nanocomposite comprised of different concentration of Au nanoparticles and the results indicate that the utilization of Au nanoparticles results in higher current efficiency and turn-on voltage, which can be observed from the electrical and optical property of the device. The result of mixing Au nanoparticles into DNA biopolymer to form nanoparticle/DNA nanocomposite can further enhance device efficiency.