New insights into the design of conjugated polymers for intramolecular singlet fission

Hu, Jiahua; Xu, Ke; Shen, Lei; Wu, Qin; He, Guiying; Wang, Jie-Yu; Pei, Jian; Xia, Jianlong; Sfeir, Matthew Y.

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05389-w

New insights into the design of conjugated polymers for intramolecular singlet fission

Journal Article · Tue Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05389-w· OSTI ID:1474070

Hu, Jiahua ^[1]; Xu, Ke ^[1]; Shen, Lei ^[1]; ^[2]; He, Guiying ^[1]; Wang, Jie-Yu ^[3]; Pei, Jian ^[4]; ^[1]; ^[5]

Wuhan Univ. of Technology (China). State Key Lab. of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Life Science
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
Peking Univ., Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Lab. of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education; Key Lab. of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education; Center of Soft Matter Science and Engineering; College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
Peking Univ., Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Key Lab. of Bioorganic Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education; Key Lab. of Polymer Chemistry and Physics of Ministry of Education; Center of Soft Matter Science and Engineering; College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering
Wuhan Univ. of Technology (China). State Key Lab. of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Life Science; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)

Singlet fission (SF), a multiple exciton generation process which generates two triplet excitons after the absorption of one photon, can potentially enable more efficient solar cell designs, by harvesting energy normally lost as heat. While low-bandgap conjugated polymers are the highly promising candidates for efficient SF-based solar cells, few polymer materials capable of SF have been reported because the SF process in polymer chains is poorly understood. Using transient spectroscopy, we demonstrate a new, highly efficient (triplet yield of 160~200%) isoindigo-based donor-acceptor polymer and show that the triplet pairs are directly emissive and exhibit a time dependent energy evolution. Importantly, aggregation in poor solvents and in films significantly lowers the singlet energy, suppressing triplet formation because the energy conservation criterion is no longer met. These results suggest a new design rule for developing intramolecular SF capable low-bandgap conjugated polymers whereby inter-chain interactions must be carefully engineered.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC); Wuhan University of Technology

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1474070

Report Number(s):: BNL--209083-2018-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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