Effect of fluorine atoms on optoelectronic, aggregation and dielectric constants of 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-based alternating conjugated polymers

Journal article, 2021

Three 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-based conjugated copolymers named PBDT-0F-BTs, PBDT-2F-BTs and PBDT-6F-FBTs, which were derived from 4,8-bis(4,5-dioctylthiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene and (3,4′-bis(2-hexyl- decyl)-2,2′-dithiophene-5-yl) substituted 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole and/or 5,6-difluoro- 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole derivatives with 2,2′-dithiophene and/or 3,3′-difluoro- 2,2′-dithiophene as π-linkers, were prepared and characterized. The copolymers PBDT-0F-BTs, PBDT-2F-BTs and PBDT-6F-FBTs exhibited the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied orbital (LUMO) energy levels of −5.38 eV/−3.57 eV, −5.45 eV/−3.65 eV and −5.55 eV/−3.78 eV, with the light response from 300 nm to 720–750 nm, alongside with the similar aggregation, except that the charge transporting mobilities were successively increased, and the dielectric constants were gradually improved from 3.3 to 4.8 to 5.9 at 1 KHz, while the fluorine atoms in the each repeat unit of polymers were varied from 0 to 2 and then up to 6, respectively. Beyond that, it has also been found that the power conversion efficiencies and exciton dissociation probability (P(E,T)) of the bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic cells (BHJ-OPVs) from the blend films of polymers paired with Y6 (2,2'-((2Z,2'Z)-((12,13-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-3,9-diundecyl12,13-dihydro[1,2,5]thia- diazolo[3,4-e]thieno[2'',3'':4',5']thieno[2',3':4,5]pyrrolo[3,2-g]thieno[2',3':4,5]thieno[3,2-b]indole-2,10-diyl)bis(methanylylidene))bis(5,6-difluoro-3-oxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-ind-ene-2,1-diylidene))dimalononitrile), were varied from 7.83% and 85.9%, to 9.22% and 90.2% and then up to 12.34% and 91.4%. The results indicated that the continuous insertion of the fluorine atoms into the repeat units of the conjugated polymers would result in the consecutively deepening the HOMO energy levels, increase dielectric constants and charge mobilities, thus devote to the enhancement of the P(E,T) and the performance of the BHJ-OPVs.