Side-chains Engineering of Conjugated Polymers toward Additive-free Non-fullerene Organic Solar Cells

Side-chain engineering plays a significant role in the design of conjugated materials. In this work, a series of conjugated polymers PBDB-T-R with functionalized groups at the end of side units were developed as electron donor for organic solar cells(OSCs). The donor polymers PBDB-T-I and PBDB-T-OAc with iodine and acetate end groups exhibited similar absorption and energy levels, but showed much improved PCEs in OSCs compared to the polymer PBDB-T-H without substitutions at the end groups. Additionally, we found that PBDB-T-I and PBDB-T-OAc based cells exhibited optimized performance when using chloroform as solution-processed solvent without any additives. These results indicate that these conjugated polymers can act as self-additive to fabricate photoactive layers via solution process in OSCs.     

Non-Covalent Interactions between Polyvinyl Chloride and Conjugated Polymers Enable Excellent Mechanical Properties and High Stability in Organic Solar Cells

The incorporation of insulating polymers into conjugated polymers has been widely explored as a strategy to improve mechanical properties of flexible organic electronics. However, phase separation due to the immiscibility of these polymers has limited their effectiveness. In this study, we report the discovery of multiple non-covalent interactions that enhances the miscibility between insulating and conjugated polymers, resulting in improved mechanical properties. Specifically, we have added polyvinyl chloride (PVC) into the conjugated polymer PM6 and observed a significant increase in solution viscosity, indicative of favorable miscibility between these two polymers. This phenomenon has been rarely observed in other insulating/conjugated polymer composites. Thin films of PM6/PVC exhibit a much-improved crack-onset strain of 19.35 %, compared to 10.12 % for pristine PM6 films. Analysis reveal that a “cyclohexyl-like” structure formed through dipole-dipole interactions and hydrogen bonding between PVC and PM6 acted as a cross-linking site in the thin films, leading to improved mechanical properties. Moreover, PM6/PVC blend films have demonstrated excellent thermal and bending stability when applied as an electron donor in organic solar cells. These findings provide new insights into non-covalent interactions that can be utilized to enhance the properties of conjugated polymers and may have potential applications in flexible organic electronics.     

Effect of polydispersity on the bulk‐heterojunction morphology of P3HT:PCBM solar cells

Bulk heterojunctions (BHJs) based on semiconducting electron–donor polymer and electron–acceptor fullerene have been extensively investigated as potential photoactive layers for organic solar cells (OSCs). In the experimental studies, poly‐(3‐hexyl‐thiophene) (P3HT) polymers are hardly monodisperse as the synthesis of highly monodisperse polymer mixture is a near impossible task to achieve. However, the majority of the computational efforts on P3HT: phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM)‐based OSCs, a monodisperse P3HT is usually considered. Here, results from coarse‐grained molecular dynamics simulations of solvent evaporation and thermal annealing process of the BHJ are shared describing the effect of variability in molecular weight (also known as polydispersity) on the morphology of the active layer. Results affirm that polydispersity is beneficial for charge separation as the interfacial area is observed to increase with higher dispersity. Calculations of percolation and orientation tensors, on the other hand, reveal that a certain polydispersity index ranging between 1.05 and 1.10 should be maintained for optimal charge transport. Most importantly, these results point out that the consideration of polydispersity should be considered in computational studies of polymer‐based OSCs. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 895–903     

Recent structural evolution of lactam- and imide-functionalized polymers applied in organic field-effect transistors and organic solar cells

Organic semiconductor materials, especially donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers, have been increasingly applied in organic optoelectronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic solar cells (OSCs). Plenty of high-performance OFETs and OSCs have been achieved based on varieties of structurally modified D–A polymers. As the basic building block of D–A polymers, acceptor moieties have drawn much attention. Among the numerous types, lactam- and imide-functionalized electron-deficient building blocks have been widely investigated. In this review, the structural evolution of lactam- or imide-containing acceptors (for instance, diketopyrrolopyrrole, isoindigo, naphthalene diimide, and perylene diimide) is covered and their representative polymers applied in OFETs and OSCs are also discussed, with a focus on the effect of varied structurally modified acceptor moieties on the physicochemical and photoelectrical properties of polymers. Additionally, this review discusses the current issues that need to be settled down and the further development of new types of acceptors. It is hoped that this review could help design new electron-deficient building blocks, find a more valid method to modify already reported acceptor units, and achieve high-performance semiconductor materials eventually.

This review highlights the recent structural evolution of lactam- and imide-functionalized polymers applied in organic field-effect transistors and organic solar cells.     

Benzothiadiazole-based Conjugated Polymers for Organic Solar Cells

Benzothiadiazole(BT) is an electron-deficient unit with fused aromatic core, which can be used to construct conjugated polymers for application in organic solar cells(OSCs). In the past twenty years, huge numbers of conjugated polymers based on BT unit have been developed,focusing on the backbone engineering(such as by using different copolymerized building blocks), side chain engineering(such as by using linear or branch side units), using heteroatoms(such as F, O and S atoms, and CN group), etc. These modifications enable BT-polymers to exhibit distinct absorption spectra(with onset varied from 600 nm to 1000 nm), different frontier energy levels and crystallinities. As a consequence, BT-polymers have gained much attention in recent years, and can be simultaneously used as electron donor and electron acceptor in OSCs, providing the power conversion efficiencies(PCEs) over 18% and 14% in non-fullerene and all-polymer OSCs. In this article, we provide an overview of BTpolymers for OSCs, from donor to acceptor, via selecting some typical BT-polymers in different periods. We hope that the summary in this article can invoke the interest to study the BT-polymers toward high performance OSCs, especially with thick active layers that can be potentially used in large-area devices.     

A Multifluorination Strategy Toward Wide Bandgap Polymers for Highly Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Creating new electron-deficient unit is highly demanded to develop high-performance polymer donors for non-fullerene organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, we reported a multifluorinated unit 4,5,6,7-tetrafluoronaphtho[2,1-b : 3,4-b′]dithio-phene (FNT) and its polymers PFNT-F and PFNT-Cl. The advantages of multifluorination: (1) it enables the polymers to exhibit low-lying HOMO (≈−5.5 eV) and wide band gap (≈2.0 eV); (2) the short interactions (F⋅⋅⋅H, F⋅⋅⋅F) endow the polymers with properties of high film crystallinity and efficient hole transport; (3) well miscibility with NFAs that leads to a more well-defined nanofibrous morphology and face-on orientation in the blend films. Therefore, the PFNT-F/Cl : N3 based OSCs exhibit impressive FF values of 0.80, and remarkable PCEs of 17.53 % and 18.10 %, which make them ranked the best donor materials in OSCs. This work offers new insights into the rational design of high-performance polymers by multifluorination strategy.     

Towards Green Synthesis and Processing of Organic Solar Cells

In 2018, several major breakthroughs have been achieved in organic solar cells (OSCs) with the record power conversion efficiency (PCE) reaching over 17 %. With this increased efficiency, it is time to take a step forward to consider how to convert this technology into large scale production. For this, the economic and environmental profile of OSCs should be taken seriously‐simplified synthetic routes and green chemistry methods should be applied. According to previous studies, OSCs are competitive and profitable in the commercial market. However, toxic and/or hazardous chemicals are currently used in materials synthesis and device fabrication of OSCs. In this account, we will talk about contributions and efforts we have made to minimize the economic and environmental disadvantages in the production of OSCs. We will start with the background on how our projects were conceived and will specifically discuss our work on direct arylation and green solvent. Developments of direct arylation for synthesizing conjugated polymers will be illustrated along with our recent finding regarding the effect of green solvents on device performance and stability.     

Superior mechanical properties of dense and porous organic/inorganic hybrid thin films

The intrinsic mechanical properties of a given material strongly depend upon its chemical nature: the organics tend to be soft, but tough, while the inorganic materials are hard but brittle and are prone to fracture. The later characteristic gets even worse for porous materials and is of major concern in the microelectronics industry as porous organosilicates (mainly inorganic) will constitute the insulating layers in future electronic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate that significantly tougher organosilicate glass thin-films prepared by sol–gel process, can be obtained by introducing carbon bridging units between silicon atoms present in the organosilicate network. A fracture energy value of 15 J/m² was measured, surprisingly higher than that for dense silicon dioxide (10 J/m²), suggesting mechanical properties that lie somewhere in between those of conventional glasses and organic polymers. We also found that the Young’s modulus follows a linear decay when porosity is introduced, a unique property when compared to traditional organosilicates. As a result, crack resistant films were obtained at high levels of porosity, opening potential applications in the fields of low-k materials for future integrated circuits, membranes, sensors, waveguides, fuel cells and micro-fluidic channels.     

Synthesis of tetracyanoethylene‐substituted ferrocene and its device properties

Small organic molecules are promising candidates for cheaper, flexible and good‐performance sources for organic solar cells (OSCs) due to their easy fabrication, low cost and slightly cheaper processing. However, the lower power conversion efficiency of OSCs is the main problem for their applications. Ferrocene structures could be the best candidates for the active layers of OSCs due to their unique properties such as thermal and chemical stability. The electrochemical, electro‐optical and solar cell performances of 2,5‐dicyano‐3‐ferrocenyl‐4‐ferrocenylethynylhexa‐2,4‐dienedinitrile (DiCN‐Fc) structures were investigated. First, the electrochemical and electro‐optical properties were examined for finding the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital values and bandgap of DiCN‐Fc. The best photovoltaic performance was obtained with 7 wt% of DiCN‐Fc loading, with a power conversion efficiency of about 4.27%. In the light of our investigations, ferrocenyl‐substituted small organic molecules could contribute to the development of organic photovoltaic devices.     

Effect of molecular architecture and size of mesogen on phase behavior and photoactive properties of photoactive liquid crystalline hyperbranched polyester epoxies containing benzylidene moiety

A series of photoactive liquid crystalline linear and hyperbranched polyester epoxies were synthesized by polyaddition of photoactive bis benzylidene alkanone diol monomers and terephthalic acid and trimesic acid respectively with good yield. The effect of molecular architecture (linear and hyperbranched), size of mesogenic unit (cyclic and acyclic units) on the physicochemical, thermal, mesogenic, and photoactive properties of hyperbranched polymers were studied and compared. Degree of branching of hyperbranched polymers was found to be in the range of 0.46–0.49. Monomers containing cyclic moieties only exhibited nematic mesophase, while all polymers exhibited typical nematic mesophase. Intermolecular photo cycloaddition reaction was studied by ultraviolet–visible spectra (UV–vis) and NMR spectroscopy and photo viscosity measurement of UV irradiated polymer solutions. Faster photo induced behavior of hyperbranched polymers containing acyclic alkanone moiety, as compared to polymers containing cycloalkanone moieties, was observed. The change in the refractive index was found to be in the range of 0.02–0.024. Substantial variation of refractive index indicates that this polymer could be used for optical recording. All the polymers were also found to be fluorescent in nature. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 552–563, 2008     

Hole/Electron Transporting Materials for Nonfullerene Organic Solar Cells

Nonfullerene acceptor based organic solar cells (NF-OSCs) have witnessed rapid progress over the past few years owing to the intensive research efforts on novel electron donor and nonfullerene acceptor (NFA) materials, interfacial engineering, and device processing techniques. Interfacial layers including electron transporting layers (ETL) and hole transporting layers (HTLs) are crucially important in the OSCs for facilitating electron and hole extraction from the photoactive blend to the respective electrodes. In this review, the lates progress in both ETLs and HTLs for the currently prevailing NF-OSCs are discussed, in which the ETLs are summarized from the categories of metal oxides, metal chelates, non-conjugated electrolytes and conjugated electrolytes, and the HTLs are summarized from the categories of inorganic and organic materials. In addition, some bifunctional interlayer materials served as both ETLs and HTLs are also introduced. Finally, the prospects of ETL/HTL materials for NF-OSCs are provided.     

Recent process of plasma effect in organic solar cells

Due to the compromise between exciton diffusion length and light absorption, the active layer thickness of organic solar cells(OSCs) is limited. As we all know, embedding metal nanostructures into OSCs can improve the performance of OSCs by triggering surface plasma resonance, scattering, and other effect without increasing the physical thickness of light trapping layer. Besides, the plasma response and other roles will distinguish when metal nanostructures are embedded into different position of OSCs, which are equally important to the performance of OSCs. In this paper, the enhancement mechanisms of various metal nanostructures in different layers of OSCs are summarized from the electricity and optics aspects.This review also further highlights the progress of plasma effect and their working mechanism in OSCs,and it is expected to provide more perspective of plasma effect for performance enhancement of OSCs.     

Controlled nanomorphology of PCDTBT-fullerene blends via polymer end-group functionalization for high efficiency organic solar cells

We propose a novel method for the control of nanoscale morphologies of the photoactive layers of organic solar cells by using end group functionalization of p-type polymers. The devices based on the end-fluorinated PCDTBT exhibit a remarkably enhanced efficiency as high as 6.0% without applying any post-treatments, additives or optical spacers.     

A ternary organic solar cell with 300 nm thick active layer shows over 14% efficiency

In order to meet the requirements for making organic solar cells(OSCs) through solution printing techniques, great efforts have been devoted into developing high performance OSCs with relatively thicker active layers. In this work, a thick-film(300 nm)ternary OSC with a power conversion efficiency of 14.3% is fabricated by introducing phenyl-C_(61)-butyric-acid-methyl ester(PC_(61)BM) into a PBDB-T-2Cl:BTP-4 F host blend. The addition of PC_(61)BM is found to be helpful for improving the hole and electron mobilities, and thus facilitates charge transport as well as suppresses charge recombination in the active layers, leading to the improved efficiencies of OSCs with relatively thicker active layers. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of employing fullerene derivative PC_(61)BM to construct a high-efficiency thick-film ternary device, which would promote the development of thick layer ternary OSCs to fulfill the requirements of future roll to roll production.     

聚丙烯/蒙脱土纳米复合材料Ⅰ.制备、表征及动态力学性能

用原位接枝插层法成功地制备了聚丙烯 /蒙脱土纳米复合材料 (PPMNC) .采用X射线衍射研究复合材料中蒙脱土硅酸盐片层间距 ,发现硅酸盐片层间距从 1 94nm升至 4nm左右 .同时研究了PPMNC的动态力学性能 ,结果表明 :PPMNC的动态储能模量明显高于聚丙烯 (PP) ,尤其在T >Tg 高温段 ,甚至可以达到PP基体的 2倍     

Recent Advances and Challenges in the Design of Organic Photoacid and Photobase Generators for Polymerizations

Photopolymerization, or the use of light to trigger polymerization, is one of the most exciting technologies for advanced manufacturing of polymers. One of the key components in the photopolymerization processes is the photoactive compound that absorbs the light, generating the active species that promotes the polymerization and largely determines the final properties of the material. The field of photopolymerization has been dominated by photoradical generators to mediate radical reactions. In the last decade, to expand the number of polymers that can be prepared by photopolymerization, intensive research has been devoted to the synthesis and utilization of photoactive molecules that are able to generate a base or an acid upon irradiation. These organic compounds are known to promote not only the ring‐opening polymerization of various heterocyclic monomers such as lactones, carbonates, or epoxides but also to trigger the step‐growth synthesis of polyurethanes. This Minireview highlights the recent advances in the development of organic photobase and photoacid generators, with the aim of encouraging the wider application of these photoactive compounds in the photopolymerization area and to expand the use of these polymers in advanced manufacturing processes.     

Advanced Materials: Trends and Possibilities in Liquid Crystalline Polymers

During the past ten years there has been a sharp increase in interest in the opportunities afforded by R & D in the field of specialty polymers. Interest is mainly being shown in two distinct categories of polymers, namely, (a) polymers which are used in very small quantities to fulfill critical needs as a part of device system, and (b) high-performance engineering polymers which significantly extend their mechanical and thermal properties for structural applications. The first category ranges from advanced resists and insulating layers for microelectronic devices to membranes for filtration systems. The second category encompasses improved matrices for advanced composites as well as liquid crystalline polymers. In the present paper an overview is first given of the emerging opportunities for advanced materials and particularly specialty polymers. The status of work on liquid crystalline copolyesters is then discussed with special emphasis on one of the major problems confronting this field, namely interpreting the microstructure of the copolyesters.     

Roles of Interlayers in Efficient Organic Photovoltaic Devices

This review discusses interfacial layers in organic photovoltaic devices. The first part of the review focuses on the hole extraction layer, which is located between a positive electrode and an organic photoactive material. Strategies to improve hole extraction from the photoactive layer include incorporation of several different types of hole extraction layers, such as conductive polymeric materials, self‐assembled molecules and metal oxides, as well as surface treatment of the positive electrodes and the conductive polymeric layers. In the second part, we review recent research on interlayers that are located between a negative electrode and a photoactive layer to efficiently extract electrons from the active layer. These materials include titanium oxides, metal fluorides and other organic layers.

     

Anisotropic charge carrier transport of optoelectronic functional selenium-containing organic semiconductor materials

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) materials are currently under intense investigation because of their potential applications such as organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaic devices, and organic light-emitting diodes. Inspired by the selenization strategy can promote anisotropic charge carrier migration, and selenium-containing compounds have been proved to be promising materials as OSCs both for hole and electron transfer. Herein, we now explore the anisotropic transport properties of the series of selenium-containing compounds. For the compound containing Se Se bond, the Se Se bond will break when attaching an electron, thus those compounds cannot act as n-type OSCs. About the different isomer compounds with conjugated structure, the charge transfer will be affected by the stacking of the conjugated structures. The analysis of chemical structure and charge transfer property indicates that Se-containing materials are promising high-performance OSCs and might be used as p-type, n-type, or ambipolar OSCs. Furthermore, the symmetry of the selenium-containing OSCs will affect the type of OSCs. In addition, there is no direct relationship between the R groups with their performance, whether it or not as p-type OSCs or n-types. This work demonstrates the relationship between the optoelectronic function and structure of selenium-containing OSCs materials and hence paves the way to design and improve optoelectronic function of OSCs materials.     

Enhancing corrosion resistance of zinc-filled protective coatings using conductive polymers

Organic coatings containing zinc are amply used for the protection of metals, particularly steel structures. Ways to reduce the zinc content in the coating materials are sought for environmental and financial reasons. Our previous work (Kohl, Prog Org Coat 77:512–517, 2014; Kohl and Kalendová, Mater Sci Forum 818: 171–174, 2015a) suggested that one of the options consists in the use of conductive polymers in the formulation of the zinc coatings. The benefits of conductive polymers include nontoxicity, high stability, electric conductivity and redox potential. Previously we focussed on the effect of conductive polymers added to the organic coatings so as to complete the zinc volume concentration to 67%. The anticorrosion efficiency of the organic coatings was found to improve with increasing polyaniline phosphate or polypyrrole concentrations. Zinc content reduction in the system, however, did not attain more than 5%. The present work focusses on systems where the organic coatings are prepared with zinc having a pigment volume concentration PVC = 50%. Zinc content reduction in the system attains up to 20%. This work examines the mechanical and anticorrosion properties of the organic coatings with reduced zinc contents. The present work was devoted to the feasibility of using of conductive polymers in the formulation of coatings with reduced zinc contents. The conductive polymers included polyaniline, polypyrrole and poly(phenylenediamine); these were synthesised and characterised using physico-chemical methods. Polyphenylenediamine as a potential corrosion inhibitor has not been paid adequate attention so far. Subsequently, organic coatings with reduced zinc contents and containing the pigments at 0.5, 1 and 3% volume concentrations were formulated. The coatings were subjected to mechanical tests and accelerated corrosion tests to assess their mechanical and corrosion resistance. The corrosion resistance of the organic coatings was also studied by linear polarisation. The results of the mechanical tests, accelerated corrosion tests and linear polarisation measurements indicate that the organic coating properties get affected by the conductive polymer type as well as by the pigment volume concentration. The important finding is that the use of conductive polymers in coatings with reduced zinc contents was beneficial in all cases.