Issue 22, 2021

Molecular tailoring of trifluoromethyl-substituted conjugated polymers for efficient organic solar cells

Abstract

Fluorination of polymer donors is a widely adopted approach to make efficient organic solar cells (OSCs). Herein, four new polymer donors were synthesized by introducing a trifluoromethyl-ester group-substituted thiophene (TEST) unit with different ratios into a typical polymer donor PBDB-TF which resulted in downshifting the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy-level to −5.8 eV, thereby improving the open-circuit voltage (Voc) of the corresponding OSCs from 0.86 to 0.96 V. Besides, trifluoromethylation improved the intermolecular aggregation, and consequently, PBDB-TF with a TEST unit content of 20% exhibited superior light absorption, effective charge transport, and favorable morphology, leading to the formation of efficient OSCs with a high Voc of 0.88 V, a large fill factor (FF) of 72.70% and a best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 12.02%. This work suggests a promising method to design efficient photoactive materials with well-optimized optoelectronic characteristics for high-performance OSCs via facile introduction of an electron-withdrawing group into polymer backbones.

Graphical abstract: Molecular tailoring of trifluoromethyl-substituted conjugated polymers for efficient organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Yan 2021
Accepted
08 Dzi 2021
First published
24 Dzi 2021

Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 3346-3351

Molecular tailoring of trifluoromethyl-substituted conjugated polymers for efficient organic solar cells

X. Zhang, C. Yao, J. Zhao, M. U. Ali, A. Li, C. K. Shen, C. Yan, Y. He, J. Miao and H. Meng, Polym. Chem., 2021, 12, 3346 DOI: 10.1039/D1PY00177A

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