供体-受体型共轭聚合物电子结构和导电性能的理论设计

以苯并[1,2-c:4,5-c']二[1,2,5]噻重氮和吡嗪并[2,3-g]喹喔啉为电子受体(A),噻吩、噻吩并[3,2-b]噻吩和二噻吩并[2,3-b:2',3'-d]噻吩为电子供体(D),设计了6种D-A型共轭聚合物.采用B3LYP方法,研究了这6种聚合物的几何结构和电子性质.D-A型共轭聚合物的几何结构和电子结构与电子供体和电子受体的性质,特别是与其提供电子和接受电子的能力密切相关.聚合物的能隙主要受键长交替控制,键长交替越小,能隙越窄.所设计的6种聚合物中,p-BBT-TT具有较窄的能隙(0.48 eV)、较小的载流子有效质量和相对较大的能带宽度,具备理论上的良好导电性能,可能是潜在的优良导电聚合物材料.     

Tuning the electronic structures and optical properties of fluorene-based donor–acceptor copolymers by changing the acceptors: a theoretical study

Five fluorene-based conjugated copolymers were studied to explore the effect of acceptor on the electronic and optical properties. Their ground-state, excited-state electronic structures and the tunable optical properties were theoretically investigated using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods. The acceptors including quinoxaline (Q), 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BT), thieno[3,4-b]pyrazine (TP), 2,1,3-benzooxadiazole (BO), and pyridopyrazine (PP) can significantly influence the copolymers’ electronic structures, molecular orbitals, geometric conformations, and optical properties. Calculations were made on systems containing one, two, three, and four oligomers in the neutral, cationic, and anionic structures, which can be extrapolated to infinite chain length polymers. The result indicated that the sequence of the band gap was on the reverse trend of emission wavelength. The strong electron-withdrawing strength of TP unit and coplanar backbone in poly[2,7-(9,9′-dihexylfluorene)-alt-2,3-dimethyl-5,7-dithien-2-yl-thieno[3,4-b] pyrazine] resulted in the enhanced degree of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and lowest band gap. The contribution of acceptors to IP was also found to follow the sequence of TP < Q < PP < BT < BO. The absorption and emission spectra exhibited red-shift with increasing the conjugation lengths. The present study suggested that the electronic and optical properties of donor–acceptor conjugated copolymers were affected by the acceptor structure.     

Toward High Performance Ambipolar Transport from Super-exchange Perspective: Theoretical Insights for IID-based Copolymers

High-performance ambipolar charge transport materials can reduce the manufacturing cost of OFET and OPV devices, and simplify circuit design and device structure. In order to obtain ambipolar donor-acceptor (D-A) polymer, many efforts have been made through different donor and acceptor combination, halogenation or heteroatom substitution. However, the influencing factor for charge transport polarity is still much complicated. Based on intra-chain super-exchange mechanism for D-A polymer, we found that the energy alignment of donor and acceptor moiety has large impact on charge transport polarity. When the HOMO-LUMO (H-L) gap of the acceptor moiety is narrow, its HOMO/LUMO energy level both lie between the HOMO and LUMO of the donor moiety (sandwich-type energy alignment), and the corresponding D-A copolymers will be more likely ambipolar transport. And thus, take a narrow H-L gap thiazoleisoindigo (TzIID) acceptor as an example, we demonstrated that a series of TzIID based copolymers combined with wide H-L gap donor moieties can reveal ambipolar transport. We further predict several high performance ambipolar D-A copolymers (TzIID-TT etc.) with balanced electron and hole transport, whose effective mass (m_e*=0.146 and m_h*=0.128) is one of the smallest effective masses among ambipolar materials.

     

Synthesis and photophysical properties of conjugated polymers with pendant 9,10-anthraquinone units

We have synthesized and investigated the photophysical properties of a series of electron-donor conjugated copolymers with pendant electron-acceptor units. The copolymers consist of diethynyl-1,4-phenylene, fluorene, or phenylene rings alternating with a phenylene unit bearing a pendant 9,10-anthraquinone moiety. The pendant donor-acceptor polymers were designed to have different optical pi-pi* band gaps, while the oxidation potential of the polymer backbone remains approximately constant in the series. The reduction potential of the donor-acceptor polymers is associated with the pendant acceptor units. This leads to the special situation that the electrochemical gap between oxidation and reduction potentials is constant, while the optical band gap decreases, going from PPP, via PPF, to PPE. This design is used to study the effect of the optical gap on the photoinduced electron-transfer reaction that occurs between the main chain electron donor and the pendant acceptor, while the same polymer architecture and energy of the charge separated state are maintained. Fluorescence and photoinduced absorption spectroscopy are used to study the electron transfer following photoexcitation in relation to solvent polarity and in thin solid films. For the fluorene-phenylene alternating copolymer, intramolecular photoinduced electron transfer occurs in the Marcus optimal region.     

Synthesis,characterization, thermal, and optical properties of conjugated copolymers derived from phenanthrene-9,10-dione- and dibenzo[f,h]quinoxaline

Donor–acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers bearing phenanthrene-9,10-dione and dibenzo[f,h]quinoxaline as the acceptor units were synthesized via an optimized Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. Each of the aforementioned acceptors was reacted with three different donor comonomers, namely, fluorene, carbazole, and silafluorene derivatives, bearing long alkyl chains. The resulting copolymers display excellent solubility in common organic solvents with high chemical stability, allowing for the determination of their structural, thermal, and optical properties by various analytical techniques.     

Optical properties of low band gap alternating copolyfluorenes for photovoltaic devices

In a joint experimental and theoretical work the optical response and excited-state character of two novel conjugated polymers for photovoltaic applications are studied. The polymers, alternating polyfluorene (APFO) Green 1 and APFO Green 2, are both copolymers of fluorene, thiophene, and electron accepting groups. The band gaps are extended into the red and near infrared with onsets of 780 and 1000 nm, respectively, due to alternating donor and acceptor moieties along the polymer chain. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and subsequent modeling made it possible to extract the dielectric function in the range of 260-1200 nm. Semiempirical quantum chemical calculations (ZINDO) revealed the character of the main electronic transitions in the studied spectral region. The spectral band just above 400 nm was assigned to a delocalized pi-pi* transition for both polymers. The red band lying at 622 and 767 nm in the two polymers corresponds to an electronic state mainly occupying the acceptor units and having a strong charge-transfer character. We show that the ZINDO transition energies are valuable input to the application of Lorentz oscillators in modeling of the dielectric function of the polymer material.     

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.     

A visible light photocatalyst: effects of vanadium substitution on ETS-10

Hybrid density functional theory/molecular mechanics (DFT/MM) methods have been used to investigate the effects of vanadium substitution in ETS-10. Models have been developed to contain varying concentrations of V(IV) and V(V) within the O-M-O (M = Ti, V) chain. Most of the V-substituted models have a localized mid-gap state. The occupation of this localized state depends upon the dopant oxidation state, leading to the addition of multiple low energy transitions. A linear correlation has been identified between band gap energies estimated using ground state orbital energies and those calculated using the more accurate and computationally demanding time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) method for a variety of transition metal substituted models of ETS-10. Consistent with experimental data for V substitution, our models predict a decrease in the optical band gap with increasing [V], due to a lowering of the delocalized d-orbital states at the bottom of the conduction band with increasing V d-orbital character. This effect is more pronounced in the case of V(V) substitution than V(IV). Excitation energies for the V-doped models, calculated with TDDFT methods correlate well with experimental data, allowing for the assignment of specific optical transitions to experimental UV-Vis spectra. The electronic structure of V-substituted ETS-10 at high V concentration demonstrates band gap energies within the visible range of the spectrum. Additionally, at high [V] the band gap energy and presence of low energy electron traps can be controlled by the relative concentration of V(IV) and V(V) along the O-M-O chain, establishing V-substituted ETS-10 as a promising visible light photocatalyst.     

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.     

Enhancement of thermoelectric properties of D-A conjugated polymer through constructing random copolymers with more electronic donors

Developing new D-A conjugated polymer system for thermoelectric (TE) application is highly desirable. Herein, a series of random copolymers by incorporating 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) electron rich units into a diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) D-A conjugated polymer were designed and synthesized. Compared to the alternating conjugated copolymer PDPP-3T, the HOMO level of the random copolymers are increased as part of the electron deficiency acceptor DPP units in the polymer chain were superseded by electron rich EDOT, which could contribute to effective p-doping. Moreover, through incorporating EDOT to construct random copolymers, it can also induce an orientation change from face-on dominated to edge-on dominated orientation as well as enhance the packing of copolymer chains, which is beneficial to the charge transport. Under same doping condition, the electrical conductivities of the doped polymers increase and the Seebeck coefficient decrease as the increasing of EDOT content, resulting in an optimized power factor of 6.4 μW m⁻¹ K⁻² for the random polymer with EDOT content of 40% which is four times higher than that of alternating conjugated copolymer PDPP-3T. These results demonstrated that constructing random copolymers by incorporating more electronic donors into D-A conjugated polymers may be a promising strategy for developing TE conjugated polymers.     

Low band gap copolymers based on thiophene and quinoxaline: Their electronic energy levels and photovoltaic application

Low band gap conjugated copolymers containing donor (thiophene)‐acceptor (quinoxaline, Qx ) were synthesized via Stille coupling polymerization. The resulting copolymers were characterized by ¹H NMR, element analysis, GPC, TGA, and DSC. UV‐vis spectra indicated that the increase in the content of quinoxaline units increased the interaction strengthen of the polymer main chains and caused a red‐shift in the optical absorbance. Cyclic voltammetry was used to estimate energy levels of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) and the highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO), and the band gap (E_g) of the copolymers. The basic electronic structures of the copolymers were also studied by density‐functional theory (DFT) calculations. Both the experimental and calculation results indicated an increase in the HOMO energy level with increasing the content of quinoxaline units, whereas the corresponding change in the LUMO energy level is much smaller. Polymer photovoltaic cells (PVCs) were fabricated with the structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS (30 nm)/active layer (80 nm)/Ca (8 nm)/Al(140 nm). The results show that the introduction of a proper amount of electron‐acceptor groups in the polymer main chains induces an extension of the absorption spectra and improves the photovoltaic properties of the copolymers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 3399–3408, 2009     

非富勒烯聚合物太阳电池研究进展

综述了以p-型共轭聚合物为给体、n-型有机半导体为受体的非富勒烯聚合物太阳电池光伏材料最新研究进展,包括n-型共轭聚合物和可溶液加工小分子n-型有机半导体(n-OS)受体光伏材料,以及与之匹配的p-型共轭聚合物给体光伏材料.介绍的n-型共轭聚合物受体光伏材料包括基于苝酰亚胺(BDI)、萘酰亚胺(NDI)以及新型硼氮键连受体单元的D-A共聚物受体光伏材料,目前基于聚合物给体(J51)和聚合物受体(N2200)的全聚合物太阳电池的能量转换效率最高达到8.26%.n-OS小分子受体光伏材料包括基于BDI和NDI单元的有机分子、基于稠环中心给体单元的A-D-A型窄带隙有机小分子受体材料等.给体光伏材料包括基于齐聚噻吩和苯并二噻吩(BDT)给体单元的D-A共聚物,重点介绍与窄带隙A-D-A结构小分子受体吸收互补的、基于噻吩取代BDT单元的中间带隙二维共轭聚合物给体光伏材料.使用中间带隙的p-型共轭聚合物为给体、窄带隙A-D-A结构有机小分子为受体的非富勒烯聚合物太阳电池能量转换效率已经突破12%,展示了光明的前景.最后对非富勒烯聚合物太阳电池将来的发展进行了展望.     

含噻吩窄带隙共轭聚合物类太阳能电池材料的研究进展

含噻吩的窄带隙共轭聚合物类太阳能电池材料因其良好的稳定性和可加工性,已成为新型太阳能电池的研究热点。本论文主要介绍了用于太阳能电池的窄带隙共轭聚合物研究进展,按其结构特征分为烷基/烷氧基取代聚噻吩、含苯基聚噻吩、基于噻吩并吡嗪的共聚物、基于噻吩并噻唑的共聚物、基于噻吩并吩噻嗪的共聚物、基于烷基芴的共聚物以及其它种类的窄带隙的共轭聚合物,并对它们的结构特点、光学带隙、合成方法进行了归纳与总结。本文最后简要介绍了该研究领域目前所面临的一些问题,同时讨论了该类材料在此领域今后的发展趋势。     

Non-equivalent D-A copolymerization strategy towards highly efficient polymer donor for polymer solar cells

D-A copolymerization is a broadly utilized molecular design strategy to construct high efficiency photovoltaic materials for polymer solar cells (PSCs),and all the D-A copolymer donors reported till now are the alternate D-A copolymers with equal D-and A-units.Here,we first propose a non-equivalent D-A copolymerization strategy with unequal D-and A-units,and develop three novel non-equivalent D-A copolymer donors (PM6-D1,PM6-D2 and PM6-D3 with D/A unit ratio of 1.1:0.9,1.2:0.8 and1.3:0.7,respectively) by inserting more D units into the alternate D-A copolymer PM6 backbone to finely tune the physicochemical and photovoltaic properties of the polymers.The three non-equivalent D-A copolymers show the down-shifted highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels,higher hole mobility,higher degree of molecular self-assembly and higher molecular crystallinity with the increase of D-unit ratio in comparison with the alternate D-A copolymer PM6.As a result,all the three non-equivalent D-A copolymer-based PSCs with Y6 as acceptor achieve improved power conversion efficiency (PCE)with higher V_(oc),larger J_(sc)and higher FF simultaneously.Particularly,the PM6-D1:Y6 based PSC achieved a high PCE of17.71%,which is significantly higher than that (15.82%) of the PM6:Y6 based PSC and is one of the highest performances in the binary PSCs.     

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     

Direct arylation polymerization toward efficient synthesis of benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c'] dithiophene-4,8-dione based donor-acceptor alternating copolymers for organic optoelectronic applications

Wide-bandgap π-conjugated donor-acceptor (D-A) alternating copolymers consisting of benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione (BDTD) as the electron-accepting building block have demonstrated outstanding performances in organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cell devices. But the synthesis of these polymers has been largely limited to conventional polymerization techniques, particularly Stille-coupling based polycondensations, which often involve tedious preactivation of C-H bonds using highly flammable reagents such as butyl lithium and highly toxic reagents such as trialkyl tin chlorides. Herein, we report a “greener” synthetic route of direct arylation polymerization to a series of wide bandgap D-A copolymers with a common acceptor building block of BDTD. The structure–property relationship in these polymers is characterized. We also present the device performances of these polymers in both thin-film field-effect transistors and organic BHJ solar cells involving the BDTD-based polymers as the electron donors and fullerene derivatives as the electron acceptors. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2554–2564     

Theoretical study of selenium and tellurium impurities in (ZnO)6 clusters using DFT and TDDFT

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have attracted much interest due to their potential applications in various fields including optoelectronics, glass industries, and solar cells. These compounds hold the promise of creating new materials that can advance energy technologies. In this work, a series of (ZnO)₆ clusters with selenium and tellurium applied as substitutional impurities has been studied. The investigated structures have been produced through the doping of (ZnO)₆ clusters by replacing an oxygen atom with a selenium or a tellurium atom at each time. The ground state geometric parameters of (ZnO)₆ structures, containing selenium or tellurium atoms as substitutional impurities, were calculated using density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP and LanL2DZ basis set. Excited state energies and absorption wavelengths were computed using time‐dependent‐DFT (TDDFT). For the calculation of emission wavelengths, Hartree–Fock configuration interaction singles (HF/CIS) has been used in order to perform the excited state geometry optimization. This work led to some important results that can be helpful for developing novel THz sensitive materials and imaging detectors that may be an alternative to x‐rays detectors for radiology as well as for the development of solar cells and electroluminescent diodes. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have attracted growing interest due to their potential applications in many technological fields, including optoelectronics, the glass industry, and energy. The presence of impurities, in particular selenium and tellurium, in ZnO‐based clusters can affect their structural and spectroscopic properties. Some of these doped nanostructures have favorable Terahertz emission characteristics that make them good candidates for applications in biology and medicine.     

Hydrogen-bond interactions in hydrated 6-selenoguanine tautomers: a theoretical study

A comprehensive theoretical investigation has been performed to study the six most stable complexes of isolated, mono, and hexahydrated 6-selenoguanine tautomers. The ground state geometries are studied at the density-functional theory and Møller–Plesset Perturbation theory implementing the 6-311++G (2d, 2p) basis set. The intermolecular distances between the water molecule and the acceptor atom of 6-selenoguanine is about 0.6 Å longer for hydrogen bonds involving selenium atom. The relative Gibbs free energy of the 6-selenoguanine tautomers favors the selenone tautomer. The majority of the stable monohydrated complexes are the one in which the oxygen atom of water accepts the acidic N7-H proton while donating a proton to the carbonyl selenium atom of 6-selenoguanine; the interaction toward N7-H being stronger than that with the selenium site. The amino group planarity has been found to be increased in the hydrated complexes. The examination of molecular orbital reveals a moderate band gap between the donor and acceptor atoms of isolated and hydrated complexes. An excellent linear correlation is found to exist between electron density and laplacian of electron density with hydrogen-bond length through atoms in molecule analysis. The natural bond orbital analysis shows a maximum charge transfer of 0.060e for selenium acceptors and around 0.025e for selenium donors.     

Synthesis and opto-electronic properties of functionalized pyrimidine-based conjugated polymers

Side chain engineering has been used for tuning the opto-electronic properties of organic semiconductors. In this work, a series of pyrimidine-based donor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers functionalized with electron-withdrawing or electron-donating side chains were synthesized. The opto-electronic properties of the pyrimidine D-A conjugated polymers were investigated focusing on the dependence on the electron withdrawing strength of the acceptor moiety, while maintaining the same donor moiety. Fine-tuning of the energy levels was achieved by introducing electron donating (alkoxy [ OR] and alkylthio [ SR]) or electron withdrawing (alkylsulfinyl [ SOR] and alkylsulfonyl [ SO₂R]) side chains onto the acceptor moiety. The effects of side chain modification have been investigated through DFT calculations, UV–vis analysis, and electrochemical measurements. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2547–2553     

A combined computational and experimental study of polynuclear Ru-TPPZ complexes: insight into the electronic and optical properties of coordination polymers

We report a combined experimental and computational study of polynuclear [Ru(n)(TPPZ)(n)(+1)](2)(n)(+) complexes, of interest in the field of photoactive polymers. The complexes with n = 1, 2, 3 and n > 5 have been synthesized and spectroscopically characterized. A red-shift of the visible band maximum from 2.59 to 2.03 eV is observed going from the monomer to the longer oligomeric species (n > 5). To characterize the geometries, electronic structure, and excited states of these complexes, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT calculations on the [Ru(n)(TPPZ)(n)(+1)](2)(n)(+) series with n = 1-4 in solution have been performed. The agreement between experimental and calculated spectra is good, both in terms of absorption maximum energies and relative intensities for different values of n. For all the investigated complexes, we assign the main band in the visible region as a metal-to-metal plus ligand charge transfer (MMLCT) transition. The resulting excited states are delocalized throughout the entire complexes, as they originate from a superposition of pi(TPPZ)-t(2g)(Ru) states. The low-energy shoulder of the main visible absorption band, present in the experimental spectra for n > 1, is proposed to arise from spin-forbidden singlet-triplet transitions of similar MMLCT character, consistent with the observed enhancement of this feature in the spectra of the corresponding Os oligomers.