1
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Coker JF, Moro S, Gertsen AS, Shi X, Pearce D, van der Schelling MP, Xu Y, Zhang W, Andreasen JW, Snyder CR, Richter LJ, Bird MJ, McCulloch I, Costantini G, Frost JM, Nelson J. Perpendicular crossing chains enable high mobility in a noncrystalline conjugated polymer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2403879121. [PMID: 39226361 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403879121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2024] [Accepted: 07/22/2024] [Indexed: 09/05/2024] Open
Abstract
The nature of interchain π-system contacts, and their relationship to hole transport, are elucidated for the high-mobility, noncrystalline conjugated polymer C16-IDTBT by the application of scanning tunneling microscopy, molecular dynamics, and quantum chemical calculations. The microstructure is shown to favor an unusual packing motif in which paired chains cross-over one another at near-perpendicular angles. By linking to mesoscale microstructural features, revealed by coarse-grained molecular dynamics and previous studies, and performing simulations of charge transport, it is demonstrated that the high mobility of C16-IDTBT can be explained by the promotion of a highly interconnected transport network, stemming from the adoption of perpendicular contacts at the nanoscale, in combination with fast intrachain transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jack F Coker
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
| | - Stefania Moro
- School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - Anders S Gertsen
- Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| | - Xingyuan Shi
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
| | - Drew Pearce
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
| | - Martin P van der Schelling
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft 2628 CD, The Netherlands
| | - Yucheng Xu
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
- Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom
| | - Weimin Zhang
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Solar Center, Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
| | - Jens W Andreasen
- Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby 2800, Denmark
| | - Chad R Snyder
- Material Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
| | - Lee J Richter
- Material Science and Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
| | - Matthew J Bird
- Chemistry Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973
| | - Iain McCulloch
- Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom
| | - Giovanni Costantini
- School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
| | - Jarvist M Frost
- Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, London W12 0BZ, United Kingdom
| | - Jenny Nelson
- Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
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2
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LeCroy G, Ghosh R, Sommerville P, Burke C, Makki H, Rozylowicz K, Cheng C, Weber M, Khelifi W, Stingelin N, Troisi A, Luscombe C, Spano FC, Salleo A. Using Molecular Structure to Tune Intrachain and Interchain Charge Transport in Indacenodithiophene-Based Copolymers. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:21778-21790. [PMID: 39058936 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c06006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/28/2024]
Abstract
In this work, we compare two structurally near-amorphous rigid-rod polymers─poly(indacenodithiophene-co-benzothiadiazole), p(IDT-BT), and poly(indacenodithiophene-co-benzopyrollodione), p(IDT-BPD)─with orders of magnitude different mobilities to understand the effect charge carrier intrachain delocalization has on electronic transport. Quantum chemical calculations show that p(IDT-BPD) has a barrier to torsion that is significantly lower than that of p(IDT-BT) and is thus more likely to have reduced conjugation lengths. We utilize absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy to characterize energetic disorder and show that p(IDT-BPD) has higher energetic disorder. Charge modulation spectroscopy (CMS) and model calculations are used to show that charge carriers are substantially delocalized in p(IDT-BT) and occupy near-uniform energetic environments. We find that mobility activated hopping barriers are similar in these two materials. Electronic structure calculations show that both intrachain and interchain couplings of monomer units are poor enough in p(IDT-BPD) that charge carriers collapse to single IDT units and transport via a through-space tunneling mechanism. This work highlights the remarkable charge transport properties of p(IDT-BT) by showing that high mobilities are achievable on device-relevant length scales with only 1D carrier delocalization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Garrett LeCroy
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - Raja Ghosh
- Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, United States
| | - Parker Sommerville
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States
| | - Colm Burke
- Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, United Kingdom
| | - Hesam Makki
- Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, United Kingdom
| | - Kalee Rozylowicz
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - Christina Cheng
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
| | - Mark Weber
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Wissem Khelifi
- pi-Conjugated Polymers Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
| | - Natalie Stingelin
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
- School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - Alessandro Troisi
- Department of Chemistry, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, United Kingdom
| | - Christine Luscombe
- pi-Conjugated Polymers Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Onna, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan
| | - Frank C Spano
- Department of Chemistry, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, United States
| | - Alberto Salleo
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, United States
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Burke C, Makki H, Troisi A. From Chemical Drawing to Electronic Properties of Semiconducting Polymers in Bulk: A Tool for Chemical Discovery. J Chem Theory Comput 2024; 20:4019-4028. [PMID: 38642040 PMCID: PMC11099970 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c01417] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/26/2023] [Revised: 04/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 04/22/2024]
Abstract
A quantum chemistry (QC)/molecular dynamics (MD) scheme is developed to calculate electronic properties of semiconducting polymers in three steps: (i) constructing the polymer force field through a unified workflow, (ii) equilibrating polymer models, and (iii) calculating electronic structure properties (e.g., density of states and localization length) from the equilibrated models by QC approaches. Notably, as the second step of this scheme is generally the most time-consuming one, we introduce an alternative method to compute thermally averaged electronic properties in bulk, based on the simulation of a polymer chain in the solution of its repeat units, which is shown to reproduce the microstructure of polymer chains and their electrostatic effect (successfully tested for five benchmark polymers) 10 times faster than state-of-the-art methods. In fact, this scheme offers a consistent and speedy way of estimating electronic properties of polymers from their chemical drawings, thus ensuring the availability of a homogeneous set of simulations to derive structure-property relationships and material design principles. As an example, we show how the electrostatic effect of the polymer chain environment can disturb the localized electronic states at the band tails and how this effect is more significant in the case of diketopyrrolopyrrole polymers as compared to indacenodithiophene and dithiopheneindenofluorene ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colm Burke
- Department of Chemistry and
Materials Innovation Factory, University
of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, U.K.
| | - Hesam Makki
- Department of Chemistry and
Materials Innovation Factory, University
of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, U.K.
| | - Alessandro Troisi
- Department of Chemistry and
Materials Innovation Factory, University
of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZD, U.K.
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Cai Y, Zhang Y, Zhang J, Pan X, Andersson MR, Wang P. A Homopolymer of Xanthenoxanthene-Based Polycyclic Heteroaromatic for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2023:e202315814. [PMID: 38061995 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202315814] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023]
Abstract
Highly efficient perovskite solar cells typically rely on spiro-OMeTAD as a hole transporter, achieving a 25.7 % efficiency record. However, these cells are susceptible to harsh 85 °C conditions. Here, we present a peri-xanthenoxanthene-based semiconducting homopolymer (p-TNI2) with matched energy levels and a high molecular weight, synthesized nearly quantitatively through facile oxidative polymerization. Compared to established materials, p-TNI2 excels in hole mobility, morphology, modulus, and waterproofing. Implementing p-TNI2 as the hole transport layer results in n-i-p perovskite solar cells with an initial average efficiency of 24.6 %, rivaling 24.4 % for the spiro-OMeTAD control cells under identical conditions. Furthermore, the p-TNI2-based cells exhibit enhanced thermostability at 85 °C and operational robustness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaohang Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Yuyan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Jing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Xun Pan
- Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 5042, Australia
| | - Mats R Andersson
- Flinders Institute for NanoScale Science and Technology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 5042, Australia
| | - Peng Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Silicon and Advanced Semiconductor Materials, Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
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