On the Importance of Chemical Precision in Organic Electronics: Fullerene Intercalation in Perfectly Alternating Conjugated Polymers
- Institute for Materials Research (IMO) Hasselt University Agoralaan Diepenbeek 3590 Belgium, IMEC Associated Lab IMOMEC Wetenschapspark 1 Diepenbeek 3590 Belgium, Energyville Thorpark Genk 3600 Belgium
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel Physical Chemistry and Polymer Science Pleinlaan 2 Brussels 1050 Belgium
- Department of Chemistry University of Warwick Gibbet Hill Road Coventry CV4 7AL UK
- School of Chemistry University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT UK
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 USA
- Department of Earth System Science Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 USA
- KU Leuven Polymer Chemistry and Materials Division Celestijnenlaan 200F Heverlee 3001 Belgium
- Laboratory for Chemistry of Novel Materials Materials Research Institute University of Mons (UMONS) 20 Place du Parc Mons B‐7000 Belgium
The true structure of alternating conjugated polymers—the state‐of‐the‐art materials for many organic electronics—often deviates from the idealized picture. Homocoupling defects are in fact inherent to the widely used cross‐coupling polymerization methods. Nevertheless, many polymers still perform excellently in the envisaged applications, which raises the question if one should really care about these imperfections. This article looks at the relevance of chemical precision (and lack thereof) in conjugated polymers covering the entire spectrum from the molecular scale, to the micro and mesostructure, up to the device level. The different types of polymerization errors for the alkoxylated variant of the benchmark (semi)crystalline polymer poly[2,5‐bis(3‐tetradecylthiophen‐2‐yl)thieno[3,2‐ b ]thiophene (PBTTT) are identified, visualized, and quantified and a general strategy to avoid homocoupling is introduced. Through a combination of experiments and supported by simulations, it is shown that these coupling defects hinder fullerene intercalation and limit device performance as compared to the homocoupling‐free analog. This clearly demonstrates that structural defects do matter and should be generally avoided, in particular when the geometrical regularity of the polymer is essential. These insights likely go beyond the specific PBTTT derivatives studied here and are of general relevance for the wider organic electronics field.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- European Research Council; European Union's Horizon 2020; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Workforce Development for Teachers & Scientists (WDTS)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; SC0014664
- OSTI ID:
- 1999267
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 2007813
OSTI ID: 1999268
- Journal Information:
- Advanced Functional Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials Journal Issue: 52 Vol. 33; ISSN 1616-301X
- Publisher:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- Germany
- Language:
- English