Thienopyrazine or dithiadiazatrindene containing low band gap conjugated polymers for polymer solar cells

Four new low-band-gap alternating copolymers （P-1, P-2, P-3 and P-4） based on electron-rich benzodithiophene and newly developed electron-deficient units, thienopyrazine or dithiadiazatrindene derivatives, were synthesized by Stille polycondensation. All polymers exhibit good solubility in common organic solvents and a broad absorption band in the visible to near-infrared regions. The film optical band gaps of the polymers are in the range of 1.28-2.07 eV and the highest occupied molecular orbital （HOMO） energy levels are in the range of-4.99 eV to -5.28 eV. Bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells （PSCs） of the polymers were fabricated with phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester （PC61BM） as acceptor material, and a power conversion efficiency of 0.80% was realized with P-1 as donor material.     

Ladder‐Type Nonacyclic Arene Bis(thieno[3,2‐b]thieno)cyclopentafluorene as a Promising Building Block for Non‐Fullerene Acceptors

The ladder‐type nonacyclic arene (bis(thieno[3,2‐b]thieno)cyclopentafluorene (BTTF)) has been designed and synthesized through fusing thienothiophenes with the fluorene core from the synthon of dimethyl 9,9‐dioctyl‐2,7‐bis(thieno[3,2‐b]thiophen‐2‐yl)fluorene‐3,6‐dicarboxylate. With BTTF as the central donor unit, a novel acceptor–donor–acceptor (A‐D‐A) type non‐fullerene small‐molecule acceptor ( BTTFIC ) was prepared with 1,1‐dicyanomethylene‐3‐indanones (IC) as the peripheral acceptor units. The energy level of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of BTTFIC locate at ?5.56 and ?3.95 eV, respectively, presenting a low optical band gap of 1.58 eV. Encouragingly, polymer solar cells based on the blends of BTTFIC with both the representative wide‐ and low‐bandgap polymer donors (PBDB‐T, 1.82 eV. PTB7‐Th, 1.58 eV) offer power conversion efficiencies over 8 % (8.78±0.18 % for PBDB‐T: BTTFIC and 8.18±0.29 % for PTB7‐Th: BTTFIC ). These results highlight the advantage of ladder‐type BTTF on the preparation of nonfullerene acceptors with extended conjugated backbones.     

吡唑啉衍生物的电化学性质及其能带结构

有机 /聚合物电致发光是当今世界上的热门研究领域[1 ,2 ] ,因而有机 /聚合物电致发光材料的能带结构成为非常重要的研究课题[3] .目前 ,确定有机 /聚合物电致发光材料的能带结构的方法主要有电化学法[4] ,光谱法[5] ,量子化学计算法[6] ,紫外光电子能谱法[7] ,光电子发射法[8] 等 .这些方法中 ,由于电化学方法操作简单 ,对仪器设备要求不高 ,故被广泛使用 .虽然不同的测试方法测得的能带数据存在一定的系统误差 ,但由于电发光器件中考虑的是材料间的能带匹配 ,因此 ,在不同的条件下测定的能带数据相对来说是可信的 .吡唑啉化合物具有较高的…     

Phthalocyanine‐Based Organometallic Nanocages: Properties and Gas Storage

Phthalocyanine (Pc) molecules are well‐known flexible structural units for 1D nanotubes and 2D nanosheets. First‐principles calculations combined with grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations are used to obtain the geometries, electronic structures, optical properties, and hydrogen‐storage capacities of nanocages consisting of six Pc molecules with six Mg or Ca atoms. The primitive Pc cage has T_h symmetry with twofold degeneracy in the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), and threefold degeneracy in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO); the corresponding HOMO–LUMO gap is found to be 0.97 eV. The MgPc and CaPc cages have O_h symmetry with a HOMO–LUMO gap of 1.24 and 1.13 eV, respectively. Optical absorption spectra suggest that the Pc‐based cages can absorb infrared light, which is different from the visible‐light absorption in Pc molecules. We further show that the excess uptake of hydrogen on MgPc and CaPc cages at 298 K and 100 bar (1 bar=0.1 MPa) is about 3.49 and 4.74 wt %, respectively. The present study provides new insight into Pc‐based nanostructures with potential applications.     

Donor-pi-acceptor conjugated copolymers for photovoltaic applications: tuning the open-circuit voltage by adjusting the donor/acceptor ratio

A class of new conjugated copolymers containing a donor (thiophene)-acceptor (2-pyran-4-ylidene-malononitrile) was synthesized via Stille coupling polymerization. The resulting copolymers were characterized by 1H NMR, elemental analysis, GPC, TGA, and DSC. UV-vis spectra indicated that the increase in the content of the thiophene units increased the interaction between the polymer main chains to cause a red-shift in the optical absorbance. Cyclic voltammetry was used to estimate the energy levels of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the band gap (Eg) of the copolymers. The basic electronic structures of the copolymers were also studied by DFT calculations with the GGA/B3LYP function. Both the experimental and the calculated results indicated an increase in the HOMO energy level with increasing the content of thiophene units, whereas the corresponding change in the LUMO energy level was much smaller. Polymer photovoltaic cells of a bulk heterojunction were fabricated with the structure of ITO/PEDOT/PSS (30 nm)/copolymer-PCBM blend (70 nm)/Ca (8 nm)/Al (140 nm). It was found that the open-circuit voltage (Voc) increased (up to 0.93 V) with a decrease in the content of thiophene units. Although the observed power convention efficiency is still relatively low (up to 0.9%), the corresponding low fill factor (0.29) indicates considerable room for further improvement in the device performance. These results provided a novel concept for developing high Voc photovoltaic cells based on donor-pi-acceptor conjugated copolymers by adjusting the donor/acceptor ratio.     

Electronic and Chemical Characterization of Aluminum–Nitrogen (AlN) Substituted Fullerenes: C58AlN to C24Al12N12

Density functional theory calculations (B3LYP/6-311G*) are applied to devise a series of AlN-substituted C₆₀ fullerenes, avoiding weak homonuclear Al–Al and N–N bonds. The substitutional structures, energy gaps between the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, ionization potentials, binding energies, as well as dipole moments have been systematically investigated. The band gap (HOMO–LUMO gap) is larger for all the AlN-substituted fullerenes than C₆₀. The properties of heterofullerenes, especially, the HOMO–LUMO strongly depend on the number of AlN units. Natural charge analyses indicate that doping of fullerene with AlN units exerts electronic environment diversity to the cage. High charge transfer on the surfaces of our heterofullerenes provokes more studies on their possible application for hydrogen storage.     

Optical and Electrical Properties of Triphenylamine Derivatives for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells and Designing of Novel Molecule

With density functional theory(DFT) method, the optimization of molecular configurations and the calculation of frontier molecular orbitals were achieved for triphenylamine(TPA)-based dye-sensitized solar cell materials at the B3LYP/6-31G(d, p) level. Time-dependent density functional theory(TD-DFT) was applied to calculating the probability of the transition from the ground state to the excited state. And UV-Vis absorption spectra were derived with Franck-Condon approximation. The conjugation length, substitution groups and spatial effects show a slight influence on the dihedral angle of the TPA group. The increase of conjugation length may cause a smaller energy gap as well as a higher highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) and a lower lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO). The introduction of methoxyl group and TPA group could lower the energy gap while the HOMO and LUMO were elevated in energy.     

Low energy (e,2e) studies from CH4: results from symmetric coplanar experiments and molecular three-body distorted wave theory

Low energy experimental and theoretical triply differential cross sections are presented for electron impact ionization of methane (CH(4)) for both the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and next highest occupied molecular orbital (NHOMO). The HOMO is a predominantly p-type orbital which is labeled 1t(2) and the NHOMO is predominantly s-type labeled 2a(1). Coplanar symmetric (symmetric both in final state electron energies and observation angles) are presented for final state electron energies ranging from 2.5 to 20 eV. The theoretical M3DW (molecular three-body distorted wave) results are in surprisingly good agreement with experiment for the HOMO state and less satisfactory agreement for the NHOMO state. The molecular NHOMO results are also compared with the ionization of the 2s shell of neon which is the isoelectronic atom.     

Electrochemical Determination of the Energy Level of Organic Electroluminescent Materials

The studies of energy level of organic/polymeric (organic) systems play a key role in organic light emitting devices (LED). Investigating of energy level not only involves determination of the band gap (E_g) of organic materials, but also involves determination of the absolute energy positions of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO). The most widely used method for determination of the band gap values of organic materials is optical absorption spectroscopy,however, this method can not provide the absolute band edge positions of E_LUM0 and E_HOMO. Quantum chemical calculations (such as VEH) can also provide the values of E_g and E_H0M0, but it is usually complicated and time-consuming. The photoemission analysis has also been investigated recently for determining the HOMO position of organic systems, however, the high price of the determination systems by this method leads to the limitation to use of it.     

高分子光伏材料聚对苯乙烯撑-喹喔啉共聚物的合成与光学性能研究

高分子光伏材料聚对苯撑乙烯撑(PPV)由于低廉的价格, 容易加工的性能与可调的光学性能, 有可能成为新一代太阳能材料. 然而PPV较宽的带隙阻碍了PPV太阳能电池效率进一步提高. 合成了一种较低带隙的新型高分子光伏材料 PPV-PQ. 用NMR, FT-IR, 元素分析, GPC和TGA与循环伏安法对PPV-PQ进行了结构表征与性能检测, 并对它在氯仿溶液与固态薄膜下的紫外-可见吸收与荧光发射光谱进行了研究. 结果显示, 由于在固态下存在较强的分子间作用, 分子链的共平面性增加, 所以PPV-PQ无论是紫外-可见吸收, 还是荧光发射光谱, 在固态薄膜下都比在氯仿溶液里发生明显红移. 即使在浓溶液中, 分子链间也存在较强的作用力, 使得PPV-PQ荧光发射峰随溶液浓度的增加而发生红移. 紫外-可见光谱显示, PPV-PQ由于大体积的吸电子单元引起了较大的空间位阻, 最大吸收峰比PPV稍微蓝移, 但吸收却比PPV向长波延展, 带隙比PPV低, 只有1.92 eV. 循环伏安法结果表明PPV-PQ与PCBM两者的LUMO之间有足够的能量差异, 加上PPV-PQ与富勒烯衍生物C117共混物薄膜发生荧光猝灭, 都说明PPV-PQ上光激发电子能够转移到富勒烯衍生物上. 因此, PPV-PQ可以用作高分子光伏材料.     

Synthesis and characterization of new type molecular wires with tetrathiafulvalene as redox center

A new type of molecular wire 1a – c with tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) units was synthesized and characterized. The UV–vis spectra and electrochemistry results showed that comparing with PPE, these polymers had smaller HOMO–LUMO band gap, and the HOMO level of polymer 1a (?5.05 eV) was closer to the work function energy of Au electrode. Thermal stability analyses indicated that these polymers had good thermal stability. All of the results showed that the introduction of TTF units made polymers 1a – c better candidates for molecular wires than PPE. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2707–2713, 2006     

基于三苯胺/二苯砜的热激活延迟荧光材料

通过Suzuki反应合成了三种基于三苯胺/二苯砜的热激活延迟荧光(TADF)材料(1-3),采用紫外-可见(UV-Vis)吸收光谱、时间分辨荧光发射光谱、循环伏安(CV)测试、理论计算、热重分析和差示扫描量热法,系统地研究了三种材料的光物理、电化学、延迟荧光性能和热稳定性.材料1-3均为基于分子内电荷转移(ICT)的双极性分子.三种材料在薄膜中的单线态-三线态能级差分别为0.46、0.39和0.29 eV.荧光量子效率和荧光寿命的测试结果表明,三种材料均能发射延迟荧光,其中材料3具有最佳的延迟荧光性能.材料1-3的最高占有分子轨道(HOMO)能级分别为-4.91、-4.89和-4.89 eV.结合UV-Vis吸收光谱中得到的能隙(E_g)值,我们得到材料1-3的最低未占分子轨道(LUMO)能级,分别为-1.74、-1.89和-1.94 eV.热分析的结果表明,材料1-3具有其较高的热分解温度(T_d,失重5%时的温度),分别为436、387和310 ℃.     

Low band‐gap modulation of isoindigo‐based copolymers toward high open‐circuit voltage of polymer solar cells

Designing low band‐gap‐conjugated polymers coupled with low HOMO levels attracts great attention in the field of polymer solar cells (PSCs). By using donor–acceptor (D‐A) copolymerization strategy, we designed and synthesized a series of low band‐gap copolymers with deep HOMO levels via introducing an isoindigo (IID) acceptor unit in the copolymers with the donor unit of fluorene (F) (PIID‐F), carbazole (Cz) (PIID‐Cz), thiophene (Th) (PIID‐Th), dithiophene (DTh) (PIID‐DTh), or dithienosilole (DTS) (PIID‐DTS). The HOMO level of the copolymers, measured by electrochemical cyclic voltammetry, varies from ?5.3 eV to ?5.8 eV, depending on different donor units in the copolymers. However, the LUMO levels of all the copolymers are fixed at about ?3.6 eV, which is mainly determined by IID acceptor unit due to its strong electron‐withdrawing ability. The new results will provide an effect help in designing IID based molecular structures. Among the copolymers, PIID‐DTS has a low band gap of 1.58 eV and possesses a low‐lying HOMO energy level of ?5.33 eV. The PSCs based on PIID‐DTS as donor and PC₇₀BM as acceptor exhibited a high open‐circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.93 V and a primary power conversion efficiency of 2.45%. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013 , 51, 3477–3485     

Synthesis and electroluminescent properties of soluble poly(3,6-fluorene) and its copolymer

Soluble poly(3,6-fluorene) and its copolymer were synthesized by nickel-catalyzed coupling. Poly(3,6-fluorene) exhibited the optical band gap of 3.6 eV, the emission maximum at 347 nm, and the HOMO level of -6.05 eV. These results confirm that 3,6-linkage is an effective way to get wide band gap conjugated polymers. Furthermore, its copolymer containing triarylamine moieties emits deep-blue light, which means that the adjustable blue light emission can be obtained from their copolymers via energy transfer.     

Toward a rational design of poly(2,7-carbazole) derivatives for solar cells

On the basis of theoretical models and calculations, several alternating polymeric structures have been investigated to develop optimized poly(2,7-carbazole) derivatives for solar cell applications. Selected low band gap alternating copolymers have been obtained via a Suzuki coupling reaction. A good correlation between DFT theoretical calculations performed on model compounds and the experimental HOMO, LUMO, and band gap energies of the corresponding polymers has been obtained. This study reveals that the alternating copolymer HOMO energy level is mainly fixed by the carbazole moiety, whereas the LUMO energy level is mainly related to the nature of the electron-withdrawing comonomer. However, solar cell performances are not solely driven by the energy levels of the materials. Clearly, the molecular weight and the overall organization of the polymers are other important key parameters to consider when developing new polymers for solar cells. Preliminary measurements have revealed hole mobilities of about 1 x 10(-3) cm2 x V(-1) x s(-1) and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 3.6%. Further improvements are anticipated through a rational design of new symmetric low band gap poly(2,7-carbazole) derivatives.     

Exploring the influence of acceptor content on semi‐random conjugated polymers

A family of diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)‐incorporated P3HT based semi‐random copolymers was synthesized and their optical, electronic and photovoltaic properties were investigated. For the first time, the influence of acceptor content on semi‐random copolymers was explored in the broad range of 10–40% acceptor. A mixture of DPP acceptor units with different side chains (ethylhexyl and decyltetradecyl) was incorporated into each copolymer to improve solubility and film quality. Increased DPP content in the polymer backbone resulted in broadened absorption between 350 and 900 nm, resulting in a monotonic decrease in optical band gap (E_g) of the polymers from 1.49 to 1.37 eV. Highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels showed an increase from 10% DPP to 20–30% DPP, while decreasing for 40% DPP. V_oc values followed a consistent trend with HOMO energy levels. Semi‐random copolymers showed significantly improved photovoltaic properties compared with P3HT. Bulk heterojunction solar cells fabricated from the semi‐random copolymers blended with PC₆₁BM exhibited high short‐circuit current densities (J_sc) up to 10.29 mA/cm² and efficiencies up to 4.43%. A new method of methanol treatment was developed and applied to the semi‐random copolymers resulting in high fill factors approaching 0.70 under ambient conditions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 3884–3892     

Pb_mTe_n(m+n≤6)团簇的结构与稳定性(英文)

采用密度泛函理论(DFT)的B3LYP方法,在SDD基组水平上对PbmTen(m+n≤6)团簇的几何结构、平均原子键能、离解能及HOMO-LUMO能隙进行了计算分析.结果表明:纯Pb团簇比纯Te团簇稳定,PbnTe比PbTen(n=2-5)稳定,PbnTe2比Pb2Ten(n=3-4)更加稳定;混合团簇PbmTen的HOMO-LUMO能隙在1.87-3.55eV之间,表明该团簇具有半导体性质;在所有团簇中,PbTe团簇最稳定.     

Pyrene–benzothiadiazole‐based copolymers for application in photovoltaic devices

The preparation and characterization of four narrow band gap pyrene–benzothiadiazole‐based alternating copolymers are presented. An investigation of the impact of attaching different solubilizing groups to the pyrene repeat units on the optical, electrochemical, and thermal properties of the resulting materials was undertaken along with studies on the aggregation of polymer chains in the solid state. Unsurprisingly, polymers which had the smaller 2‐ethylhexyl chains attached to the pyrene units (PP_EH‐DTBT and PP_EH‐DTffBT) displayed lower molecular weights relative to polymers with larger 2‐hexyldecyl substituents (PP_HD‐DTBT and PP_HD‐DTffBT). Despite this, the 2‐ethylhexyl substituted polymers displayed narrower optical band gaps relative to their analogous 2‐hexyldecyl substituted polymers. Of all polymers synthesized, PP_EH‐DTBT displayed the lowest optical band gap (1.76 eV) in the series. All polymers display degradation temperatures in excess of 300°C. Polymers with smaller alkyl chains on the pyrene units display shallower highest occupied molecular orbital levels, which could be due to increased intramolecular charge transfer between the donor and acceptor units. Preliminary investigations on bulk heterojunction solar cells with a device structure indium tin oxide/poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) : polystyrene sulfonate /Polymer : PC₇₀BM/Ca/Al were undertaken. Polymer/PC₇₀BM blend ratios of one third were used in these studies and have indicated that PP_EH‐DTBT displayed the highest efficiency with a power conversion efficiency of 1.86%. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Small band gap oligothieno[3,4-b]pyrazines

The synthesis and the optical and electrochemical properties of thiophene end capped oligo(2,3-alkylthieno[3,4- b]pyrazine)s are presented. The optical absorption rapidly shifts to lower energies with increasing chain length, caused in almost equal amounts by a rise of the HOMO and a lowering of the LUMO levels. The optical band gap of the polymer is estimated to be 1.13 +/- 0.07 eV. Extrapolated redox potentials indicate that the polymer is a small band gap p-type material.     

Synthesis, characterization and solar cell application of a D-A copolymer with cyclopentadithiophene and fluorene as donor units

In this paper, a new D-A copolymer, PFDBCPDT, which consists of benzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole as acceptor units and cyclopentadithiophene and fluorene as donor units, was synthesized. The thermal, electrochemical, photophysical and photovoltaic properties of PFDBCPDT were studied. PFDBCPDT showed a low optical band gap of 1.84 eV, and relatively low HOMO level of ?5.69 eV. The best device performance was obtained by PFDBCPDT/PC₆₁BM (1:3) with 0.5 vol% DIO. The device exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 3.06%, with a relatively high open circuit voltage of 0.87 eV.