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 (V_oc) 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.