Efficient and Robust Flexible Silver-Nanowire Electrode-Based Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diode

Flexible quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) based on silver-nanowires (AgNWs) transparent electrodes show great potential but suffer from surface roughness, poor wettability, and unstable interfaces. We propose a multifunctional interfacial engineering strategy using ZnMgO nanocrystals to address these issues. The ZnMgO layer acts as a nanoscale welding agent, preventing AgNWs sliding and improving mechanical stability while providing a smooth surface for uniform organic hole transport layer (HTL) deposition. As confirmed by capacitance-voltage (C-V) and single-carrier measurements, band alignment at the HTL/ZnMgO interface creates a low-barrier hole injection pathway, optimizing the charge balance. The resulting flexible QLED achieves 20.84% external quantum efficiency (EQE), 43,270 cd/m² luminance, and excellent voltage tolerance, with brightness stable up to 10.8 V. The device retains over 80% performance after 2000 bending cycles. Moreover, this strategy achieves up to 27.52% EQE for flexible QLEDs based on conventional electrodes, indicating a scalable route for optoelectronics.