skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Impacts of side chain and excess energy on the charge photogeneration dynamics of low-bandgap copolymer-fullerene blends

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866177· OSTI ID:22255075
;  [1]; ; ; ;  [2];  [3]
  1. Center for Condensed Matter Science and Technology, Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001 (China)
  2. Department of Chemistry, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872 (China)
  3. State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)

Primary charge photogeneration dynamics in neat and fullerene-blended films of a pair of alternating benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b{sup ′}]dithiophene (BDT) and thieno[3,4-b]thiophene (TT) copolymers are comparatively studied by using near-infrared, time-resolved absorption (TA) spectroscopy under low excitation photon fluence. PBDTTT-E and PBDTTT-C, differed merely in the respective TT-substituents of ester (-E) and carbonyl (-C), show distinctly different charge photogeneration dynamics. The pair of neat PBDTTT films show exciton lifetimes of ∼0.1 ns and fluorescence quantum yields below 0.2%, as well as prominent excess-energy enhanced exciton dissociation. In addition, PBDTTT-C gives rise to >50% higher P{sup •+} yield than PBDTTT-E does irrespective to the excitation photon energy. Both PBDTTT-E:PC{sub 61}BM and PBDTTT-C:PC{sub 61}BM blends show subpicosecond exciton lifetimes and nearly unitary fluorescence quenching efficiency and, with respect to the former blend, the latter one shows substantially higher branching ratio of charge separated (CS) state over interfacial charge transfer (ICT) state, and hence more efficient exciton-to-CS conversion. For PBDTTT-C:PC{sub 61}BM, the ultrafast charge dynamics clearly show the processes of ICT-CS interconversion and P{sup •+} migration, which are possibly influenced by the ICT excess energy. However, such processes are relatively indistinctive in the case of PBDTTT-E:PC{sub 61}BM. The results strongly prove the importance of ICT dissociation in yielding free charges, and are discussed in terms of the film morphology and the precursory solution-phase macromolecular conformation.

OSTI ID:
22255075
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 140, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English