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The integrated adjustment of chlorine substitution and two-dimensional side chain of low band gap polymers in organic solar cells

Journal Article · · Polymer Chemistry
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c7py01792h· OSTI ID:1425243
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (China). Dept. of Chemistry
  2. Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (China). Dept. of Chemistry; Wuhan Univ. (China). Dept. of Chemistry
  3. Wuhan Univ. (China). Dept. of Chemistry
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division; Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Inst. for Molecular Engineering
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A series of conjugated T2 polymers (PBBF1-T2 and PBBCl1-T2), and T3 polymers (PBBF1-T3, PBBCl1-T3 and PBBCl2-T3) were synthesized using chlorinated/fluorinated benzothiadiazole (BT) and the two-dimensional benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) units as the building blocks. When compared to the fluorinated polymer, the performance of the polymer photovoltaic devices showed that these chlorinated polymers gave extended optical absorption spectrum, and lower highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels. The introduction of chlorine atoms increases the twist angle between the polymer backbones, and led to a lower HOMO energy level and resulted in the increase of open circuit voltage (Voc) up to 0.84 V in PBBCl2-T3 based devices with a two chlorine substitution. However, the device based on PBBCl1-T3 with only one chlorine atom exhibited the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) which was as high as 6.87% with a Voc of 0.73 V, and this was about 10% higher than that of its fluorinated analogs. Here, this result indicated that the introduction of chlorine atoms into polymers is not only a simple route to synthesize a large amount of material and which avoids the tedious synthesis steps in widely used fluorinated polymers, but it is also a feasible and effective strategy to fine tune the energy level of polymer solar cell with optimized PCE. Furthermore, it is worth noting that the introduction of longer π-conjugation side chains could minimize the influence of chlorine substitution by reducing the twist angle between the polymer backbones, which would reduce the gap of Voc between the chlorinated polymers and their fluorinated analogs.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1425243
Journal Information:
Polymer Chemistry, Journal Name: Polymer Chemistry Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 9; ISSN PCOHC2; ISSN 1759-9954
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (7)

Design Principles and Synergistic Effects of Chlorination on a Conjugated Backbone for Efficient Organic Photovoltaics: A Critical Review journal February 2020
Effect of chlorination and fluorination of benzothiadiazole on the performance of polymer solar cells journal February 2020
Polymer semiconductors incorporating head-to-head linked 4-alkoxy-5-(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thiazole journal January 2018
Towards improved efficiency of polymer solar cells via chlorination of a benzo[1,2- b :4,5- b ′]dithiophene based polymer donor journal January 2019
Performance comparison of fluorinated and chlorinated donor–acceptor copolymers for polymer solar cells journal January 2018
Donor–acceptor polymers containing thiazole-fused benzothiadiazole acceptor units for organic solar cells journal January 2019
A wide-bandgap D–A copolymer donor based on a chlorine substituted acceptor unit for high performance polymer solar cells journal January 2019

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY