1 research outputs found
Fluorinated Benzothiadiazole (BT) Groups as a Powerful Unit for High-Performance Electron-Transporting Polymers
Over the past few years, one of the
most remarkable advances in the field of polymer solar cells (PSCs)
has been the development of fluorinated 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BT)-based
polymers that lack the solid working principles of previous designs,
but boost the power conversion efficiency. To assess a rich data set
for the influence of the fluorinated BT units on the charge-transport
characteristics in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), we synthesized
two new polymers (<b>PDPP-FBT</b> and <b>PDPP-2FBT</b>) incorporating diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) and either single- or
double-fluorinated BT and thoroughly investigated them via a range
of techniques. Unlike the small differences in the absorption properties
of <b>PDPP-FBT</b> and its nonfluorinated analogue (<b>PDPP-BT</b>), the introduction of doubly fluorinated BT into the polymer backbone
induces a noticeable change in its optical profiles and energy levels,
which results in a slightly wider bandgap and deeper HOMO for <b>PDPP-2FBT</b>, relative to the others. Grazing incidence X-ray
diffraction (GIXD) analysis reveals that both fluorinated polymer
films have long-range orders along the out-of-plane direction, and
π–π stacking in the in-plane direction, implying
semicrystalline lamellar structures with edge-on orientations in the
solid state. Thanks to the strong intermolecular interactions and
highly electron-deficient π-systems driven by the inclusion
of F atoms, the polymers exhibit electron mobilities of up to 0.42
and 0.30 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup> for <b>PDPP-FBT</b> and <b>PDPP-2FBT</b>, respectively,
while maintaining hole mobilities higher than 0.1 cm<sup>2</sup> V<sup>–1</sup> s<sup>–1</sup>. Our results highlight that
the use of fluorinated BT blocks in the polymers is a promising molecular
design strategy for improving electron transporting performance without
sacrificing their original hole mobility values