High-Yield Exfoliation of Stanene Nanodots for High-Performance Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

Stanene nanodots (SnNDs) derived from layered tin have attracted considerable interest due to their conveniently tunable bandgap and topological superconductivity. However, high-yield exfoliation of ultrathin SnNDs is still a challenge due to the short layer spacing and strong binding energy. In this work, atomically thin SnNDs with a uniform size of 2.3 nm are successfully prepared by utilizing imidazolium ionic liquid-assisted exfoliation. The obtained SnNDs possess a wide bandgap of 2.69 eV, along with notable solvent compatibility (well dispersed in both polar and nonpolar solvents) and excellent stability. Furthermore, we construct Ir(ppy)₃-based green OLED with hybridizing SnNDs and graphene oxide (GO) as the hole injection layer (HIL). It proves that the application of SnNDs helps to modulate the work function and passivate surface defects of GO, increasing hole mobility and thereby improving the device performance. Compared to the PEDOT:PSS-based control device, the optimized SnNDs-GO-based OLED demonstrates an improvement of 6.56, 41.06, and 8.16% in current efficiency (CE), power efficiency (PE), and external quantum efficiency (EQE), respectively. This work not only introduces a new approach to preparing 2D SnNDs but also creates a novel HIL material for OLED devices.