Issue 9, 2016

Dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyridin-5(4H)-one based D–A type copolymers with wide bandgaps of up to 2.05 eV to achieve solar cell efficiencies of up to 7.33%

Abstract

Two new polymers, PDTPO-IDT and PDTPO-IDTT, are synthesized through copolymerization of 4-(2-octyldodecyl)-dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyridin-5(4H)-one (DTPO) with indacenodithiophene (IDT) or indacenodithieno[3,2-b]thiophene (IDTT). The rational combination of the planar DTPO unit with ladder-type IDT and IDTT units endows the resulting copolymers with wide optical bandgaps of ca. 2.05 eV, low HOMO energy levels of ca. −5.32 eV and good hole-transporting abilities with a hole mobility of 1.0 × 10−3 cm2 V−1 s−1. The polymer solar cell (PSC) in a conventional structure based on PDTPO-IDT as donor and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as acceptor achieves a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of up to 7.33%, the highest value for PSCs based on polymers with optical bandgap over 2.0 eV to date, along with a remarkable open-circuit voltage (Voc) approaching 0.97 V. The performance of the PDTPO-IDTT based PSC is slightly behind this with a moderate PCE of 5.47% under the same conditions. The relationship between the copolymer structures and optoelectronic properties as well as photovoltaic performance are comprehensively investigated by experiments and theoretical simulations.

Graphical abstract: Dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyridin-5(4H)-one based D–A type copolymers with wide bandgaps of up to 2.05 eV to achieve solar cell efficiencies of up to 7.33%

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
25 abr. 2016
Accepted
10 jun. 2016
First published
10 jun. 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6167-6175

Dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyridin-5(4H)-one based D–A type copolymers with wide bandgaps of up to 2.05 eV to achieve solar cell efficiencies of up to 7.33%

W. Gao, T. Liu, M. Hao, K. Wu, C. Zhang, Y. Sun and C. Yang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6167 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC01791F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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