The similarities and differences of alkali metal chlorides (sodium chloride (NaCl), potassium chloride (KCl), rubidium chloride (RbCl) and cesium chloride (CsCl)) applied in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) are investigated. The behavior is similar for the OLEDs with these four chlorides as electron injection layer (EIL). Their maximum luminance and efficiency at 100 mA/cm(2) are within the ranges of 18 550 +/- 600 (cd/m(2)) with an error of 3.23% and 4.09 +/- 0.15 (cd/A) within an error of 3.67%, respectively. The similar performance is due to almost identical electron injection barrier for NaCl, KCl, RbCl and CsCl as EIL. Interestingly, the properties are different for devices with chlorides inserted inside tris (8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum at the position of 20 nm away from aluminum cathode, labeled as NaCl-, KCl-, RbCl- and CsCl- devices. The relation of luminance is CsCl- > RbCl- - KCl- > NaCl-, where ">" and "=" mean "better than" and "the same as", respectively. And the device efficiencies are decreased from CsCl to NaCl. That is, the sort order of the efficiencies is CsCl- > RbCl- > KCl- > NaCl-. The mechanism is explained by tunneling model in terms of various energy gaps estimated by optical electronegativity of NaCl, KCl, RbCl and CsCl. (c) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.