Electrochemical determination of the ionization potential and electron affinity of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene)

Abstract

We report cyclic voltammetry measurements for the blue electroluminescent conjugated polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene). Both oxidation and reduction potentials are determined and thus estimates of both the ionization potential Ip and electron affinity Ea of the polymer are obtained for the same sample under the same experimental conditions. We estimate Ip=5.80 eV and Ea=2.12 eV. These results disagree with the common assumption that Ea is, to good approximation, given by the difference between Ip and the optical gap. Measurements on indium tin oxide/polyfluorene/calcium light emitting diode structures are consistent with the deductions from the electrochemical data.