Conjugated polymers based on benzodithiophene and fluorinated quinoxaline for bulk heterojunction solar cells: thiophene versus thieno[3,2-b]thiophene as π-conjugated spacers
Journal article, 2014

Two conjugated donor–acceptor copolymers based on a benzodithiophene donor unit and a fluorinated quinoxaline acceptor unit, spaced with either thiophene or thieno[3,2-b]thiophene π-bridges, were designed and synthesized. The effect of different π-bridges and of the processing conditions on the optical, electrical, morphological and photovoltaic properties of the polymer:fullerene blend films were investigated. The polymer containing the thieno[3,2-b]thiophene π-bridge (PBDTFQ-TT) showed a red-shifted absorption and enhanced charge carrier mobility, as compared to its analogue with the thiophene π-bridge (PBDTFQ-T), due to its narrower optical gap (by ~ 0.1 eV) and stronger inter-chain interactions, favored by the structural planarity and increased linearity of the polymer backbone, as also supported by DFT calculations. The blend of PBDTFQ-TT and PC61BM ([6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester), compared to the PBDTFQ-T:PC61BM one processed in the same conditions (by blade-coating technique), showed greatly enhanced photovoltaic performance, with more than doubled power conversion efficiency (PCE up to 5.60% for the best device) due to the increased short-circuit current density and fill factor. However, similar PCEs were also achieved for PBDTFQ-T:PC61BM-based devices by optimizing the processing conditions through the addition of 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) as the solvent additive. Through morphological and electrical analysis of the films, produced with and without additive, it was observed that the addition of DIO greatly enhances the self-organization, and consequently the charge mobility, of the thiophene π-bridge-based polymer, while it was detrimental for the nanoscale morphology and photovoltaic performances of the thieno[3,2-b]thiophene π-bridge-based polymer in the corresponding blend.

Author

Desta Antenehe Gedefaw

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Marta Tessarolo

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

Wenliu Zhuang

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Renee Kroon

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Ergang Wang

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Margherita Bolognesi

Laboratory MIST E-R

Mirko Seri

Institute for organic syntheses and photoreactivity (ISOF-CNR)

Michele Muccini

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

Mats Andersson

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Polymer Chemistry

1759-9954 (ISSN) 1759-9962 (eISSN)

Vol. 5 6 2083-2093

SUstainable Novel FLexible Organic Watts Efficiently Reliable (SUNFLOWER)

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

Subject Categories

Materials Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Sciences

Infrastructure

C3SE (Chalmers Centre for Computational Science and Engineering)

Areas of Advance

Materials Science

DOI

10.1039/C3PY01519J

More information

Latest update

5/26/2023