Influence of Incorporating Different Electron-Rich Thiophene-Based Units on the Photovoltaic Properties of Isoindigo-Based Conjugated Polymers: An Experimental and DFT Study
Journal article, 2013

A series of novel donor–acceptor conjugated alternating copolymers based on the isoindigo acceptor moiety have been designed, synthesized, and characterized, in order to explore the potential of isoindigo for efficient donor materials with high photovoltages in solar cells. We have systematically investigated and discussed the effect of combining different electron-rich thiophene-based units on the structural, optical, electronic, and photovoltaic properties of the resulting polymers. Morphological studies and quantum-chemical calculations are carried out to gain insights into the different properties. The power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of the solar cells based on these polymers are increased step by step by over 3-fold through a rational structural modification. Among them, PBDTA-MIM shows a PCE of 5.4%, which is to our knowledge the best result achieved among isoindigo-based polymers for solar cells combined with PC61BM as the acceptor using the conventional device configuration. Our results further emphasize the use of isoindigo as an effective acceptor unit and highlight the importance of carefully choosing appropriate chemical structure to design efficient donor–acceptor polymers for organic solar cells. In addition, the resulting low optical gaps, the promising PCEs with PC61BM as the acceptor, and the good open-circuit voltages (up to 0.8 V) synergistically demonstrate the potential of this class of polymers as donor materials for bottom subcells in organic tandem solar cells.

Author

Wenliu Zhuang

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Margherita Bolognesi

Laboratory MIST E-R

Mirko Seri

Institute for organic syntheses and photoreactivity (ISOF-CNR)

Patrik Henriksson

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Desta Antenehe Gedefaw

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Renee Kroon

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Markus Jarvid

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Angelica Lundin

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Ergang Wang

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Michele Muccini

Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati del C.N.R.

Mats Andersson

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Macromolecules

00249297 (ISSN) 15205835 (eISSN)

Vol. 46 21 8488-8499

SUstainable Novel FLexible Organic Watts Efficiently Reliable (SUNFLOWER)

European Commission (EC) (EC/FP7/287594), 2011-10-01 -- 2016-03-31.

Subject Categories

Materials Engineering

Physical Sciences

Environmental Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Chemical Sciences

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

Areas of Advance

Materials Science

DOI

10.1021/ma401691r

More information

Latest update

5/26/2023