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

Title: High Dielectric Constant Semiconducting Poly(3-alkylthiophene)s from Side Chain Modification with Polar Sulfinyl and Sulfonyl Groups

Journal Article · · Macromolecules

In this paper, there is growing interest in designing and developing high dielectric constant (εr) organic semiconductors because they have the potential to further enhance device performance by promoting exciton dissociation, reducing bimolecular charge carrier recombination, and potentially enhancing charge carrier mobility via charge screening. In this study, a new class of semiconducting polymers with high εr, i.e., sulfinylated and sulfonylated poly(3-alkylthiophene)s (P3ATs), were synthesized. Because of efficient rotation of highly polar methylsulfinyl and methylsulfonyl side groups (i.e., orientational polarization), high εr values were achieved for these functionalized P3ATs based on an accurate capacitance measurement using a gold/semiconducting polymer/SiO2/n-doped Si configuration. For example, the εr at megahertz and room temperature increased from 3.75 for the regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) to 7.4 for the sulfinylated and 8.1–9.3 for sulfonylated P3AT polymers. These values are among the highest εr reported for conjugated polymers so far. Grazing-incident wide-angle X-ray diffraction results showed that these polar groups decreased the crystallinity for the polythiophene backbones and interfered with the π–π stacking in the crystalline structure. Consequently, their optical properties, including UV–vis absorption and fluorescence, changed in thin films. From this study, the sulfinylated polymer may be promising to provide a balance between high εr and preserving favorable polythiophene π–π stacking structure for device applications.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1491148
Report Number(s):
BNL-210851-2019-JAAM
Journal Information:
Macromolecules, Vol. 51, Issue 22; ISSN 0024-9297
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 34 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (50)

Direct measurement of the exciton binding energy and effective masses for charge carriers in organic–inorganic tri-halide perovskites journal June 2015
Design Proposals for Organic Materials Exhibiting a Low Exciton Binding Energy journal September 2015
The emergence of perovskite solar cells journal July 2014
Dynamic disorder in methylammoniumtrihalogenoplumbates (II) observed by millimeter‐wave spectroscopy journal December 1987
Large polarons in lead halide perovskites journal August 2017
Atomistic Origins of High-Performance in Hybrid Halide Perovskite Solar Cells journal April 2014
Exciton binding energy in small organic conjugated molecule journal June 2013
Excitons in organic semiconductors journal July 2011
Oligoacene exciton binding energies: Their dependence on molecular size journal February 2005
Calculation of excitonic properties of conjugated polymers using the Bethe–Salpeter equation journal April 2001
Bimolecular Recombination in a Low Bandgap Polymer:PCBM Blend Solar Cell with a High Dielectric Constant journal March 2016
Pathways to a New Efficiency Regime for Organic Solar Cells journal May 2012
Strategy for Enhancing the Dielectric Constant of Organic Semiconductors Without Sacrificing Charge Carrier Mobility and Solubility journal October 2014
High dielectric constant conjugated materials for organic photovoltaics journal January 2017
Exploring Strategies for High Dielectric Constant and Low Loss Polymer Dielectrics journal October 2014
Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy book January 2003
50th Anniversary Perspective : Dielectric Phenomena in Polymers and Multilayered Dielectric Films journal February 2017
Computational strategies for polymer dielectrics design journal February 2014
Synergistic dielectric and semiconducting properties in fluorescein monopotassium salt random copolymers journal April 2017
Dielectric Screening To Reduce Charge Transfer State Binding Energy in Organic Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaics journal February 2017
Non-innocent side-chains with dipole moments in organic solar cells improve charge separation journal January 2014
Influence of fluorine substituents on the film dielectric constant and open-circuit voltage in organic photovoltaics journal January 2014
High-Dielectric Constant Side-Chain Polymers Show Reduced Non-Geminate Recombination in Heterojunction Solar Cells journal March 2014
Engineering dielectric constants in organic semiconductors journal January 2017
Achieving High Dielectric Constant and Low Loss Property in a Dipolar Glass Polymer Containing Strongly Dipolar and Small-Sized Sulfone Groups journal February 2015
High-Temperature and High-Energy-Density Dipolar Glass Polymers Based on Sulfonylated Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) journal January 2018
High Dielectric Constant Sulfonyl-Containing Dipolar Glass Polymers with Enhanced Orientational Polarization journal August 2018
A Simple Method to Generate Side-Chain Derivatives of Regioregular Polythiophene via the GRIM Metathesis and Post-polymerization Functionalization journal January 2003
Experimental Evidence for the Quasi-“Living” Nature of the Grignard Metathesis Method for the Synthesis of Regioregular Poly(3-alkylthiophenes) journal October 2005
A Simple Method to Prepare Head-to-Tail Coupled, Regioregular Poly(3-alkylthiophenes) Using Grignard Metathesis journal March 1999
New regioregular polythiophenes functionalized with sulfur-containing substituents for bulk heterojunction solar cells journal June 2010
Thermal stability of P3HT and P3HT:PCBM blends in the molten state journal October 2013
Quantifying Crystallinity in High Molar Mass Poly(3-hexylthiophene) journal June 2014
The isotopic effects of deuteration on optoelectronic properties of conducting polymers journal January 2014
Synthesis of Di-block Copolymers Containing Regioregular Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and Poly(tetrahydrofuran) by a Combination of Grignard Metathesis and Cationic Polymerizations: Synthesis of Di-block Copolymers Containing Regioregular Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and Poly(tetrahydrofuran) … journal September 2009
Amphiphilic Block Copolymers Containing Regioregular Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and Poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) journal April 2010
Fabrication of a multi-charge generable poly(phenyl isocyanide)-block-poly(3-hexylthiophene) rod–rod conjugated copolymer journal January 2015
Solvent-Induced White-Light Emission of Amphiphilic Rod–Rod Poly(3-triethylene glycol thiophene)- block -poly(phenyl isocyanide) Copolymer journal September 2013
Bandgap Engineering through Controlled Oxidation of Polythiophenes journal January 2014
Oligothiophene- S , S -dioxides:  a New Class of Thiophene-based Materials journal March 1998
Synthesis of Thiophene 1,1-Dioxides and Tuning Their Optoelectronic Properties journal October 2013
Synthesis of Perfluoroalkyl End-Functionalized Poly(3-hexylthiophene) and the Effect of Fluorinated End Groups on Solar Cell Performance journal December 2012
Relaxation and Conductivity in P3HT/PC 71 BM Blends As Revealed by Dielectric Spectroscopy journal March 2016
Reduction of Ionic Conduction Loss in Multilayer Dielectric Films by Immobilizing Impurity Ions in High Glass Transition Temperature Polymer Layers journal January 2018
Simultaneous measurement of carrier density and mobility of organic semiconductors using capacitance techniques journal November 2011
Layer confinement effect on charge migration in polycarbonate/poly(vinylidene fluorid- co -hexafluoropropylene) multilayered films journal June 2012
Crystal Orientation and Temperature Effects on Double Hysteresis Loop Behavior in a Poly(vinylidene fluoride- co -trifluoroethylene- co -chlorotrifluoroethylene)- graft -Polystyrene Graft Copolymer journal December 2013
Charge carrier mobility in regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) probed by transient conductivity techniques: A comparative study journal January 2005
Moderate doping leads to high performance of semiconductor/insulator polymer blend transistors journal March 2013
Enhanced Charge Carrier Mobility in Two-Dimensional High Dielectric Molybdenum Oxide journal October 2012

Cited By (1)

A zinc( ii ) complex of di(naphthylethynyl)azadipyrromethene with low synthetic complexity leads to OPV with high industrial accessibility journal January 2019

Similar Records

Influence of side-chain isomerization on the isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(3-alkylthiophenes)
Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Journal of Materials Research · OSTI ID:1491148

Ion diffusion coefficients in poly(3-alkylthiophenes) for energy conversion and biosensing: role of side-chain length and microstructure
Journal Article · Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Materials Chemistry C · OSTI ID:1491148

X-Ray Scattering Study of Thin Films of Poly(2,5-Bis(3-Alkylthiophen-2-Yl)Thieno[3,2-B]thiophene)
Journal Article · Tue Jun 02 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · J.Am.Chem.Soc.129:3226-3237,2007 · OSTI ID:1491148

Related Subjects