Built-In Haze Glass-Fabric Reinforced Siloxane Hybrid Film for Efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)

Substrates with high transmittance and high haze are desired for increasing the light outcoupling efficiency of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). However, most of the polymer films used as substrate have high transmittance and low haze. Herein, a facile route to fabricate a built-in haze glass-fabric reinforced siloxane hybrid (GFRH) film having high total transmittance (≈89%) and high haze (≈89%) is reported using the scattering effect induced by refractive index contrast between the glass fabric and the siloxane hybrid (hybrimer). The hybrimer exhibiting large refractive index contrast with the glass fabric is synthesized by removing the phenyl substituents. Besides its optical properties, the hazy GFRH films exhibit smooth surface (R_sq = 0.2 nm), low thermal expansion (13 ppm °C⁻¹), high chemical stability, and dimensional stability. Owing to the outstanding properties of the GFRH film, OLED is successfully fabricated onto the film exhibiting 74% external quantum efficiency enhancement. The hazy GFRH's unique optical properties, excellent thermal stability, outstanding dimensional stability, and the ability to perform as a transparent electrode enable them as a wide ranging substrate for the flexible optoelectronic devices.