Transformation from Nanofibers to Nanoribbons in Poly(3-hexylthiophene) Solution by Adding Alkylthiols

Alkoxythiophene-Directed Fibrillization of Polymer Donor for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Realizing fibrillar molecular framework is highly encouraged in organic solar cells (OSCs) due to the merit of efficient charge carrier transport. This is however mainly achieved via the chemical structural design of photovoltaic semiconductors. In this work, through the utilization of three alkoxythiophene additives, T-2OMe, T-OEH, and T-2OEH, the intermolecular interactions among a series of BDT-type polymer donors, i.e., PM6, D18, PBDB-T, and PTB7-Th, are tuned to self-assemble into nanofibrils during solution casting. X-ray technique and molecular dynamics simulation reveal that the alkoxythiophene with (2-ethylhexyl)oxy (─OEH) chains can attach on the 2-ethylhexyl (EH) chains of these polymer donors and promote their self-assembly into 1D nanofibrils, in their neat films as well as photovoltaic blends with L8-BO. By adapting these fibrillar polymer donors to construct pseudo-bulk heterojunction (P-BHJ) OSCs via layer-by-layer deposition, generally improved device performance is seen, with power conversion efficiencies enhanced from 18.2% to 19.2% (certified 18.96%) and from 17.9% to 18.7% for the PM6/L8-BO and D18/L8-BO devices, respectively. This work provides a physical approach to promote the fibrillar charge transport channels for efficient photovoltaics.

Direct formation of nano-objects via in situ self-assembly of conjugated polymers

The development of the polymer self-assembly method “in situ nanoparticlization of conjugated polymers” is discussed in this Perspective.

Controlling Molecule Aggregation and Electronic Spatial Coherence in the H-Aggregate and J-Aggregate Regime at Room Temperature

Controlling molecule aggregation in polymer films is one of the key factors in understanding the links between properties and structures in organic semiconductors. Here, we used poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) as the model system. By doping the insulating polar additive poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) into P3HT film and controlling the processing methods, we achieved the side-to-side H-aggregate and head-to-tail J-aggregate of P3HT molecules with different extents at room temperature. We have demonstrated that the solvent solidification rate plays an important role in the controlling of molecule aggregation, which finally influenced the solid-state phase separation in the film. Furthermore, based on a series of spectroscopy investigations, we quantified the electronic spatial coherence in different aggregations combined with the modified Franck-Condon model. Subsequently, we established the relationship between the processing method, the molecule aggregation, and the electronic spatial coherence.