7 research outputs found
Siloxane-Terminated Side Chain Engineering of Acceptor Polymers Leading to Over 7% Power Conversion Efficiencies in All-Polymer Solar Cells
To
investigate the influence of functional pendent groups on acceptor
polymers and photovoltaic properties of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs),
two novel acceptor polymers containing siloxane-terminated side chains
are synthesized and characterized. Increasing the content of siloxane-terminated
side chains can reduce π–π stacking distance and
improve crystalline behavior, yet lead to poorer solubility of the
acceptor polymers. By modulating the proper loadings of siloxane-terminated
side chains on the acceptor polymers, the PBDB-T:PNDI-Si25 all-PSC
attains a maximal power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.4% with an
outstanding fill factor of 0.68. The results provide new insights
for developing high-performance all-PSCs through functional group
engineering on the acceptor polymers, to achieve good solubility,
polymer miscibility, and blend morphology
5,6-Difluorobenzothiazole-Based Conjugated Polymers with Large Band Gaps and Deep Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital Levels
A 5,6-difluorobenzothiazole-based
dibromo monomer was successfully synthesized, from which new fluorinated
conjugated polymers PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz were prepared via copolymerizations
with two fluorene-based diboronic ester monomers. Twisted fluorene-ffBTz
backbones enable PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz with large band gaps up to
3.10 eV and deep-lying highest occupied molecular orbital levels down
to −6.2 eV. The chemical structures of PF-ffBTz and PFN-ffBTz
impart some new functionalities of fluorinated conjugated polymers.
PF-ffBTz can show deep blue electroluminescent emission, with high
external quantum efficiency of 3.71%. PFN-ffBTz, with amino-functionalized
side chains on the fluorene unit, can serve as an efficient cathode
interlayer in inverted polymer solar cells (PSCs), showing better
photovoltaic performances if compared with a ZnO interlayer. In addition,
it is found that using an optical filter to cut off the short wavelength
section (≤380 nm) of incident light can significantly elevate
photostability of PSCs under continuous illumination
Temperature-Driven Phase Transition of a Fused Dithienobenzothiadiazole–Tetrathiophene Based Semiconducting Copolymer
A high-molecular-weight
donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymer,
pDTfBT-4T, polyÂ(5,8-diÂ[3-octylÂdodecanÂthiopen-5-yl]ÂdithienoÂ[3′,2′:3,4:2″,3″:5,6]ÂbenzoÂ[1,2-<i>c</i>]Â[1,2,5]-thiadiazole-<i>alt</i>-2,2′-bithiophene),
including alternating dithienoÂ[3′,2′:3,4;2″,3″:5,6]ÂbenzoÂ[1,2-<i>c</i>]Â[1,2,5]Âthiadiazole (DTfBT) and 3-octylÂdodecylÂtetrathiophene
(4T) was synthesized by a Stille coupling polymerization. We found
that pDTfBT-4T had a molecular number-average weight of 276 kg mol<sup>–1</sup> and formed unexpectedly strong interchain aggregates
in dilute solutions at room temperature, which was similar to those
in as-spun thin solid films. pDTfBT-4T thin films were spun-cast from
a warm dilute chlorobenzene solution on hydrophobic polymer-treated
SiO<sub>2</sub> dielectrics. Some were shortly annealed at various
temperatures (<i>T</i>) for 10 min to improve π-overlapped
structures as charge-carrier transport paths. The ordered domains
of pDTfBT-4T in the annealed films could be tuned from one-dimensional
nanorods to two-dimensional nanosheets with an increasing in <i>T</i>, which also provided enhanced crystal orientation. Optimizing
the conjugated structures of pDTfBT-4T in the annealed films, the
polymer based OFETs yielded a hole mobility up to 1.45 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> as well as negligible
hysteresis and excellent negative bias stability
High Efficiency and High <i>V</i><sub>oc</sub> Inverted Polymer Solar Cells Based on a Low-Lying HOMO Polycarbazole Donor and a Hydrophilic Polycarbazole Interlayer on ITO Cathode
In this work, polyÂ[<i>N</i>-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-<i>alt</i>-5,5-(4,7-di-2-thienyl-5,6-bisÂ(dodecyloxy)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)]
(PCDTBT12) was synthesized as the polymer donor for photovoltaic application.
PCDTBT12 possesses a band gap of 1.99 eV, a low-lying HOMO of −5.6
eV, and good hole mobility up to 4.1 × 10<sup>–3</sup> cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup>. With
ZnO as the interlayer on an ITO cathode, a PCDTBT12-based inverted
solar cell showed a high open-circuit voltage of 0.98 V and a good
power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.53%, suggesting that PCDTBT12
would be a promising donor material in the fabrication of a subcell
for shorter wavelength absorption in a tandem solar cell. Using PC-P,
a homopolymer of 2,7-carbazole with hydrophilic phosphonate side chains,
as an interlayer polymer on the ITO cathode could further elevate
the efficiency to 6.04% because of increased current (higher efficiency
of 6.2% was achieved for a smaller cell area of 0.045 cm<sup>2</sup>). The efficiencies are the highest ones so far reported for an inverted
solar cell with an organic cathode interlayer. It was proposed that
the hydrophilic side chains of PC-P supplied a subgap state for electron
transport. The two devices showed comparable air stability, and retained
over 96% of their initial PCEs after storage in air for more than
1 month. Therefore, a hydrophilic conjugated polymer as the cathode
interlayer, already shown in outstanding cathode modifications in
conventional polymer solar cells, will play an important role in the
future development of high efficiency and air-stable inverted solar
cells
A Highly Crystalline Wide-Band-Gap Conjugated Polymer toward High-Performance As-Cast Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells
A new
wide-band-gap conjugated polymer PBODT was successfully synthesized
that showed high crystallinity and was utilized as the active material
in nonfullerene bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells (PSCs). The
photovoltaic devices based on the as-cast blend films of PBODT with
ITIC and IDIC acceptors showed notable power conversion efficiencies
(PCEs) of 7.06% and 9.09%, with high open-circuit voltages of 1.00
and 0.93 V that correspond to low energy losses of 0.59 and 0.69 eV,
respectively. In the case of PBODT:ITIC, lower exciton quenching efficiency
and monomolecular recombination are found for devices with small driving
force. On the other hand, the relatively higher driving force and
suppressed monomolecular recombination for PBODT:IDIC devices are
identified to be the reason for their higher short-circuit current
density (<i>J</i><sub>sc</sub>) and higher PCEs. In addition,
when processed with the nonchlorinated solvent 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene,
a good PCE of 8.19% was still achieved for the IDIC-based device.
Our work shows that such wide-band-gap polymers have great potential
for the environmentally friendly fabrication of highly efficient PSCs
Donor–Acceptor Copolymers Based on Thermally Cleavable Indigo, Isoindigo, and DPP Units: Synthesis, Field Effect Transistors, and Polymer Solar Cells
A series of donor–acceptor
type of π-conjugated copolymers based on <i>tert</i>-butoxycarbonyl (<i>t</i>-Boc) substituted indigo, isoindigo
or diketopyrrolopyrrole as the acceptor unit and a benzodithiophene
derivative as the donor unit was designed and synthesized. These copolymers
can be readily dissolved in organic solvents and can produce uniform
films by solution deposition. Thermal treatment of copolymer films
at 200 °C for 10 min resulted in elimination of <i>t</i>-Boc side groups in nearly quantitative yield as suggested by thermogravimetric
analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The elimination
of the bulky <i>t</i>-Boc side groups resulted in the emergence
of N–H···OC hydrogen bonding interactions
by virtue of the lactam structures of the indigo, isoindigo and diketopyrrolopyrrole
units. Of particular interests is the distinctly increased field-effect
mobility of these copolymers after thermal treatment, which may arise
from the enhanced coplanarity and intermolecular ordering of the indigo,
isoindigo or diketopyrrolopyrrole units after elimination of the bulky <i>t</i>-Boc side groups. These results demonstrate that the incorporation
of latent side groups provides a viable strategy to construct conjugated
polymers that can attain more ordered intermolecular stacking by simple
thermal treatments. On the other hand, despite the thermal cleavage
of <i>t</i>-Boc groups can also lead to increased ordering
of polymer chains when blending with [6,6]-phenyl C71 butyric acid
methyl ester, the photovoltaic performances of the resulting bulk
heterojunction solar cells did not obviously increase due to the serious
phase separation and coarsening of the film morphology