Purification and electronic characterisation of 18 isomers of the OPV acceptor material bis-[60]PCBM

Abstract

The as-produced isomer mixture of the organic photovoltaic device acceptor material bis-[60]PCBM has been purified into its constituents by peak-recycling HPLC, and those individual isomers were characterised by UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. A total of 18 isomers were purified from the mixture to a standard exceeding 99.5% with respect to other isomers. The HOMOs, LUMOs, and HOMO–LUMO gaps of the purified isomers vary from −5.673 to −5.444 eV, −3.901 to −3.729 eV, and 1.664 to 1.883 eV, respectively. We also find a correlation between HPLC retention time and the relative positions of the addends; in that generally the closer the addends are to each other the longer the retention time of the isomer, and vice versa.