Conjugated polymer surfaces and interfaces in polymer-based light-emitting diodes

Since the discovery of high electrical conductivity in doped polyacetylene in 1977, π-conjugated polymers have emerged as viable semiconducting electronic materials for numerous applications. In the context of polymer electronic devices, it is of critical importance to understand the nature of the electronic structure of the polymer surface and the interface with metals. It has been shown that, for conjugated polymers, photoelectron spectroscopy, especially in connection with quantum chemical modeling, provides a maximum amount of both chemical and electronic structural information in one type of measurement. There is no such thing as the ideal metal-on-polymer contact; there is always some chemistry that occurs at the interface. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.