Issue 14, 2018

Investigating the effect of heteroatom substitution in 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole compounds for organic photovoltaics

Abstract

Two new donor–acceptor−donor molecules, featuring either 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BT) or 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (BO) and capped by benzofuranyl-thienyl groups, are presented. The structures of these novel compounds differ only in the identity of one heteroatom in the acceptor unit. Replacement of the sulfur atom in BT with oxygen results in a marked improvement in the performance of PC61BM blends in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaic (BHJ OPV) devices: a 10-fold increase in PCE is observed when switching to the BO analogue. This is partly due to a preferable morphology in the donor-fullerene blends formed upon spin-coating from chlorinated solvents.

Graphical abstract: Investigating the effect of heteroatom substitution in 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole compounds for organic photovoltaics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Nov 2017
Accepted
17 Dec 2017
First published
21 Dec 2017

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018,6, 3709-3714

Investigating the effect of heteroatom substitution in 2,1,3-benzoxadiazole and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole compounds for organic photovoltaics

J. Cameron, M. M. Abed, S. J. Chapman, N. J. Findlay, P. J. Skabara, P. N. Horton and S. J. Coles, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 3709 DOI: 10.1039/C7TC05075E

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements