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.     

Synthesis and photovoltaic behavior of two new alternative donor–acceptor conjugated copolymers containing isoindigo moiety

Two donor–acceptor copolymers (P1 and P2) containing isoindigo as the acceptor unit and the benzodithiophene and bisthiophene‐dithieno[3,2‐b:2′,3′‐d]‐pyrrole as the donor unit have been designed and synthesized by the Pd‐catalyzed Stille coupling reaction. The copolymers show broad and flat absorption, exhibit good solubility, and thermal stability, but possess optical bandgaps of 1.62 and 1.42 eV, respectively, and different donor–acceptor distance, of which the former is shorter than the later. The power conversion efficiency of the polymer solar cells based on P2:PC₆₁BM (1:1 wt%) reached 1.86% with open‐circuit voltage of 0.54 V and a short‐circuit current of 6.36 mA/cm², under the illumination of AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm². Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and photovoltaic properties of new donor-acceptor benzodithiophene-containing copolymers

Four new alternating narrow band-gap copolymers containing benzodithiophene, 4,8-dithiophen-2-yl-benzo[1,2-c;4,5-c′-bis[1,2,5]thiadiazole, 4,9-bis(thiophen-2-yl)-6,7-di(2-ethylhexyl)-[1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-g]quinoxaline, 5,8-dibromo-2,3-bis(5-octylthiophen-2-yl)quinoxaline, and 4,7-bis(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2,5] thiadiazole units are synthesized under Stille reaction conditions. The structures, molecular masses, and physical properties of the copolymers are studied via ¹H NMR spectroscopy, GPC, cyclic voltammetry, and thermomechanical and thermogravimetric analyses. The polymers show solubility and a broad absorption region (with the band gap in the range from 0.81 to 1.53 eV). All of the polymers are photostable in air, and their levels of the highest occupied molecular orbital vary from ?4.98 to ?5.30 eV. Polymer solar cells based on these copolymers as donors and fullerene PC₆₀BM as an acceptor show open-circuit voltages in the range 0.16–0.61 V, and the efficiencies of the devices are in the range 0.02–0.49%.     

Synthesis and characterization of new low bandgap polyfluorene copolymers for bulk heterojunction solar cells

Two new low bandgap alternating polyfluorene copolymers based on dioctylfluorene and donor‐acceptor‐donor monomers have been synthesized via a Suzuki polymerization reaction. The resulting copolymers have low optical bandgaps at 1.99–1.98 eV. The bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells were fabricated with the conjugated polymers as the electron donor and 6.6‐phenyl C₆₁‐butyric acid methyl ester as the electron acceptor. The power conversion efficiencies of the solar cells based on copolymers 1 and 2 are 0.37 and 0.42%, respectively, under the illumination of AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm². The results indicate that the two copolymers are promising conjugated polymers for polymer solar cells. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 5336–5343, 2009     

苯并[1,2-b:4,5-b']二噻吩和二噻吩邻苯二甲酰亚胺的平面型交替共聚物的合成及其光伏性能

通过Stille聚合反应合成了含有苯并[1,2-b:4,5-b']二噻吩和二噻吩邻苯二甲酰亚胺的D-A结构平面共聚物PBDTPhBT.该聚合物热稳定性和在常见有机溶剂中的溶解性良好、在380～580nm范围内有强吸收.分子模拟计算的结果表明,聚合物主链具有较好的平面型.PBDTPhBT的光学带隙为2.10eV、用电化学方法测量的HOMO能级为5.23eV.以聚合物PBDTPhBT为给体、PC70BM为受体(给受体重量比为1:1)、Ca/Al为负极制备了本体异质结聚合物太阳能电池.在AM1.5,100mWcm2光照条件下器件的开路电压和短路电流分别为0.79V和5.63mAcm2,能量转换效率达到了1.76%.     

The impact of [1,2,5]chalcogenazolo[3,4-f]-benzo[1,2,3]triazole structure on the optoelectronic properties of conjugated polymers

Two novel conjugated near-infrared (NIR) absorbing donor–acceptor type copolymers comprising benzodithiophene as the donor and [1,2,5]chalcogenazolo[3,4-f]-benzo[1,2,3]triazole derivatives as the acceptors, spaced with thiophene as the π-bridge, were designed and synthesized via Stille polycondensation reaction. The effect of acceptor strength on optoelectronic properties was targeted and investigated. Branched alkyl chains (the extended 2-octyl-1-dodecyl alkyl chain;  C₈C₁₂) were introduced to 5H-[1,2,3]triazolo[4′,5′:4,5]benzo[1,2-c][1,2,5]thiadiazole and 5H-[1,2,3]triazolo[4′,5′:4,5]benzo[1,2-c][1,2,5]selenadiazole for enhanced solubility of polymers which ease the processability hence device constructions. The strongly electron-withdrawing units lead to a substantial change in the absorption properties via promotion of the intramolecular charge transfer band alongside the π–π* transition. The resultant soluble polymers were characterized via cyclic voltammetry to determine highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital energy levels as −5.00 and −3.92 eV for PSBT and −4.86 and −4.04 eV for PSeBT, respectively. Electronic band gaps of the copolymers were calculated as 1.08 eV for PSBT and 0.82 eV for PSeBT, respectively. NIR absorbing copolymers were used to construct electrochromic devices.     

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     

Donor-acceptor copolymers from cyclopentannulation polymerizations with dicyclopenta[cd,jk]pyrene and dicyclopenta[cd,lm] perylene acceptors

A series of donor-acceptor copolymers with dicyclopenta[cd,jk]pyrene and dicyclopenta[cd,lm]perylene acceptor units was prepared via palladium catalyzed cyclopenta-annulation reactions. The acceptor units were paired with diethynyl containing donor groups based on benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]dithiophene, thieno[3,2-b]thiophene, and 4-octyl-4H-dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole to create six polymer variants. The cyclopentannulation polymerization resulted in copolymers with molecular weights (Mn) of 6–14 kDa and broad light absorption in the visible region with band gaps of 1.38–1.85 eV. The synthetic methodology, as well as optoelectronic properties, including thin-film absorption and cyclic voltammetry, of the donor-acceptor copolymers are presented.     

Effect of furan π-bridge on the photovoltaic performance of D-A copolymers based on bi(alkylthio-thienyl)benzodithiophene and fluorobenzotriazole

The medium band gap donor-acceptor(D-A) copolymer J61 based on bi(alkylthio-thienyl)benzodithiophene as donor unit and fluorobenzotriazole as acceptor unit and thiophene as π-bridge has demonstrated excellent photovoltaic performance as donor material in nonfullerene polymer solar cells(PSCs) with narrow bandgap n-type organic semiconductor ITIC as acceptor.For studying the effect of π-bridges on the photovoltaic performance of the D-A copolymers,here we synthesized a new D-A copolymer J61-F based on the same donor and acceptor units as J61 but with furan π-bridges instead of thiophene.J61-F possesses a deeper the highest occupied molecular orbital(HOMO) level at-5.45 eV in comparison with that(-5.32 eV) of J61.The non-fullerene PSCs based on J61-F:ITIC exhibited a maximum power conversion efficiency(PCE) of 8.24%with a higher open-circuit voltage(V_(oc)) of 0.95 V,which is benefitted from the lower-lying HOMO energy level of J61-F donor material.The results indicate that main chain engineering by changing π-bridges is another effective way to tune the electronic energy levels of the conjugated D-A copolymers for the application as donor materials in non-fullerene PSCs.     

Perylene and naphthalene diimide copolymers for all-polymer solar cells: Effect of perylene/naphthalene ratio

We report the synthesis of a series of copolymers, having 2,2′-bithiophene as electron-donating moiety, and perylene diimide (PDI) and/or naphthalene diimide (NDI) as electron-accepting moiety, and employed as non-fullerene acceptors in polymer solar cells (PSCs). All the copolymers show wide absorption varying from 300 to 850 nm in the visible and NIR spectrum. When changing the PDI/NDI ratio in the polymer backbone, The LUMO energy levels vary in the range of −3.90 to −3.80 eV and the HOMO energy levels vary in the range of −6.10 to −5.85 eV. Among PSCs based on PTB7-Th donor and these polymer acceptors, the devices based on PTB7-Th/NDI100 yield the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.67%, while the PTB7-Th/PDI100-based devices yield a PCE of 1.03%. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 682–689     

Modular Establishment of a Diketopyrrolopyrrole‐Based Polymer Library via Pd‐Catalyzed Direct C–H (Hetero)arylation: a Highly Efficient Approach to Discover Low‐Bandgap Polymers

A concise, highly efficient palladium‐catalyzed direct C–H (hetero)arylation is developed to modularly assemble a diketopyrrolopyrrole ( DTDPP )‐based polymer library to screen low‐bandgap and near‐infrared (NIR) absorbing materials. The DTDPP ‐based copolymers P1 and P2 with an alternating donor–acceptor–donor–acceptor (D–A–D–A) sequence and the homopolymer P9 exhibit planarity and excellent π‐conjugation, which lead to low bandgaps (down to 1.22 eV) as well as strong and broad NIR absorption bands (up to 1000 nm).     

Synthesis of D‐π‐A‐π type benzodithiophene‐quinoxaline copolymers by direct arylation and their application in organic solar cells

Conjugated copolymers based on benzodithiophene (BDT) derivatives and thiophene‐quinoxaline‐thiophene (TQT) segments represent an efficient class of light harvesting materials for organic photovoltaic (OPV) applications. Commonly, BDT‐TQT copolymers are synthesized by Stille cross‐coupling polymerization. In this study, alkoxy and thienyl functionalized alternating BDT‐alt‐TQT copolymers are synthesized by direct arylation polymerization (DArP), using Ozawa conditions. An extensive optimization of the reaction conditions such as the catalytic system, solvent, temperature, base, and the concentration of the catalyst is accomplished. The optical and electrochemical properties of the copolymers obtained by DArP are compared to the reference polymers synthesized by Stille cross‐coupling polymerization. Finally, the optimized BDT‐alt‐TQT copolymers are incorporated into organic solar cells as electron donors. The solar cells of the DArP copolymers exhibit power conversion efficiencies up to 80% (rel.) of their Stille cross coupling analogues. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 1457–1467     

Synthesis and characterization of polyfluorenes containing bisphenazine units

Novel conjugated copolymers based on 9,9‐dioctylfluorene and bisphenazine (BP) were synthesized by Suzuki polymerization. Energy transfer from the conjugated main chain to the BP moieties was observed. Full energy transfer was achieved when the molar content of the bisphenazine was 20% (20BPPF) in toluene solution. The similar phenomena were observed even for 1% bisphenazine content copolymer (1BPPF) in film. The lowest occupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels (?3.06 eV) of the copolymers were lower than that of the polyfluorene homopolymer (PFO; ?2.65 eV), indicating that the introduction of the BP unit was benefit to electron injection. Single‐layer electroluminescent devices (ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer/LiF/Al) were fabricated to investigate their electroluminescence (EL) performances. The maximum brightness and current efficiency of all BPPF copolymers surpassed the PFO homopolymer. The best single‐layer device was based on 5BPPF, with a maximum brightness of 1532 cd/m² and current efficiency of 1.09 cd/A. Much higher efficiency could be achieved for multilayer EL devices of 5BPPF (ITO/PEDOT:PSS/PVK/polymer/TPBI/LiF/Al), which showed a maximum current efficiency of 10.01 cd/A. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1990–1999, 2010     

Dimeric naphthalene diimide based small molecule acceptors: synthesis,characterization, and photovoltaic properties

Herein, we present two naphthalene diimide (NDI) dimer based small molecule acceptors, Bis-NDI-T-EG and Bis-NDI-BDT-EG, in which two NDI units are bridged, respectively, by a thiophene (T) or a benzodithiophene (BDT), and further symmetrically substituted by 2-methoxylethoxyl (EG), both through the bay-region. These two NDI dimers exhibit broad absorption in the visible region of 300–650 (800) nm and display a HOMO/LUMO energy level of −5.88 eV/−3.80 eV and −5.46 eV/−3.78 eV, respectively. When PBDTTT-C-T was chosen as the polymer donor, Bis-NDI-T-EG and Bis-NDI-BDT-EG exhibited efficiencies of 1.31% and 1.24%, respectively.     

Solubilizing single‐walled carbon nanotubes with pyrene‐functionalized block copolymers

The effect of pyrene distribution within pyrene‐functionalized random and block copolymers on noncovalent polymer/single‐walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) interactions was investigated. The block copolymers served as superior solubilizing agents in comparison with the random copolymers. Also, increasing the pyrene content within a polymer, while a constant molecular weight was maintained, improved SWNT solubility and therefore had to result in stronger polymer–nanotube interactions. However, increasing the length of the pyrene‐containing block diminished nanotube solubility, likely because of a lower number of polymer chains that were capable of binding to the nanotube surface. Atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy indicated that the polymer–SWNT interactions were capable of partially debundling the nanotubes into individual solvated structures. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 1941–1951, 2006     

Synthesis and characterization of novel conjugated copolymers containing 3,4-dialkoxythiophene and 1,3,4-oxadiazole units

In this report we describe the synthesis, optical and electrochemical properties of new conjugated copolymers (P1-P4) based on 3,4-dialkoxythiophene and 1,3,4-oxadiazole units. The copolymers are prepared using the precursor polyhydrazide route. The chemical structures of the copolymers are confirmed using FTIR, NMR spectroscopy and CHNS analysis. The polymers exhibit good thermal stability with the onset decomposition temperature in nitrogen at around 300 °C. The optical and charge-transporting properties of the copolymers are investigated by UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence emission spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The polymers depicted blue/green fluorescence under the irradiation of UV light. Cyclic voltammetry studies reveal that these copolymers have low-lying LUMO energy levels ranging from −3.28 to −3.32 eV and high-lying HOMO energy levels ranging from −5.26 to −5.62 eV, which indicated that they may be promising candidates for the fabrication of polymer light-emitting diodes. In addition, the copolymers showed good third-order non-linear optical properties.     

Synthesis of n-type conjugated polymers for bulk heterojunction solar cells

A new conjugated alternating donor-acceptor copolymer is synthesized from perylene diimide and the benzodithiophene derivative via the Suzuki reaction. Temperatures corresponding to the 10% weight loss of the copolymer in air and argon are 336 and 362°C. The copolymer is soluble in common organic solvents. The maxima of absorption spectra of the copolymer in chloroform solution and thin films are at 456 and 567 and at 444 and 567 nm, respectively. The optical band gap, as calculated from the onset of the absorption spectrum, is 1.74 eV, and the electrochemical band gap is 1.89 eV. The energies of HOMO and LUMO derived from the onset of the first oxidation and reduction potential of the cyclic voltamperogram are ?5.97 and ?4.08 eV. It is found that the solar cell with copolymer-to-poly(3-hexylthiophene) = 1: 1 features the best characteristics: The open circuit voltage is 0.54 V, the short circuit current is 0.976 mA/cm², the fill factor is 0.397, and the efficiency is 0.14%. The conjugated polymer based on perylene diimide belongs to the class of n-type polymers and shows promise as an acceptor material for all-polymer bulk heterojunction solar cells.     

Synthesis and characterization of arylenevinylenearylene–naphthalene diimide copolymers as acceptor in all–polymer solar cells

Two n‐type conjugated D‐A copolymers, P(TVT‐NDI) and P(FVF‐NDI) with thienylene‐vinylene‐thienylene (TVT) or furanylene‐vinylene‐furanylene (FVF) as donor (D) units and naphthalene diimide (NDI) as the acceptor (A) units, were synthesized by the Stille coupling copolymerization. The two polymers possess good solubility, high thermal stability, and broad absorption bands with absorption edges at 866 nm for P(TVT‐NDI) and 886 nm for P(FVF‐NDI) . The LUMO energy levels of P(TVT‐NDI) and P(FVF‐NDI) are ?3.80 eV and ?3.76 eV respectively, so the two polymers are suitable for the application as acceptor in blending with most polymer donor in PSCs based on the energy level matching point of view. All polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs) were fabricated with P(TVT‐NDI) or P(FVF‐NDI) as acceptor and medium bandgap polymer J51 as donor for investigating the photovoltaic performance of the two n‐type conjugated polymer acceptors. And higher power conversion efficiency of 6.43% for P(TVT‐NDI) and 5.21% for P(FVF‐NDI) was obtained. The results indicate that arylenevinylenearylene–naphthalene diimide copolymer are promising polymer acceptor for all–PSCs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55 , 1757–1764     

Synthesis and Photovoltaic Properties of Ester Group Functionalized Polythiophene Derivatives

To increase the open circuit voltage (V_OC) of polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on polythiophene, two new ester group functionalized polythiophene derivatives, PCTDT and PCTBDT, were designed and synthesized via alternating copolymerization of thiophene‐3‐carboxylate (CT) with the 2,2′‐bithiophene (DT) and benzodithiophene (BDT) units, respectively. The resulting copolymers exhibited broad and strong absorptions in the visible region, which was similar to that of the commonly used poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT). Through cyclic voltammetry measurements, it was found that both copolymers showed lower HOMO energy levels (−5.27 eV for PCTDT and −5.36 eV for PCTBDT) than that of P3HT (−5.03 eV), indicating that the HOMO energy level could be efficiently reduced by introducing the ester group into the polymer side chain. Photovoltaic properties of the copolymers blended with [6,6]‐phenyl‐C₆₁‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as electron acceptor were investigated. The obtained two devices possessed both relatively large short circuit current (I_SC) and higher V_OC than that of P3HT:PCBM blend. For PCTBDT:PCBM blend, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) up to 2.32%, an I_SC of 6.94 mA · cm⁻², and a V_OC of 0.80 V were observed while PCTDT:PCBM system demonstrated a PCE of 1.75% with a V_OC of 0.68 V.

     

Low band‐gap D–A conjugated copolymers based on anthradithiophene and diketopyrrolopyrrole for polymer solar cells and field‐effect transistors

Two conjugated copolymers PADT‐DPP and PADT‐FDPP based on anthradithiophene and diketopyrrolopyrrole, with thiophene and furan as the π‐conjugated bridge, respectively, were successfully synthesized and characterized. The number‐averaged molecular weights of the two polymers are 38.7 and 30.2 kg/mol, respectively. Polymers PADT‐DPP and PADT‐FDPP exhibit broad absorption bands and their optical band gaps are 1.44 and 1.50 eV, respectively. The highest occupied molecular orbital energy level of PADT‐DPP is located at ?5.03 eV while that of PADT‐FDPP is at ?5.16 eV. In field‐effect transistors, PADT‐DPP and PADT‐FDPP displayed hole mobilities of 4.7 × 10^?3 and 2.7 × 10^?3 cm²/(V s), respectively. In polymer solar cells, PADT‐DPP and PADT‐FDPP showed power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.44% and 0.29%, respectively. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the poor efficiency of PADT‐FDPP should be related to the large two‐phase separation in its active layer. If 1,8‐diiodooctane (DIO) was used as the solvent additive, the PCE of PADT‐DPP remained almost unchanged due to very limited morphology variation. However, the addition of DIO could remarkably elevate the PCE of PADT‐FDPP to 2.62% because of the greatly improved morphology. Our results suggest that the anthradithiophene as an electron‐donating polycyclic system is useful to construct new D–A alternating copolymers for efficient polymer solar cells. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 1652–1661