Effect of Incorporated Nitrogens on the Planarity and Photovoltaic Performance of Donor–Acceptor Copolymers

Synergistic Design of Imidazole-Based Polymer Donors for Enhanced Organic Solar Cell Efficiency

Within the realm of organic solar cells (OSCs), designing new high-efficiency polymer donors remains a significant challenge. Achieving the right balance in polymer backbone planarity is crucial: excessive planarity can lead to undesirable aggregation, while insufficient planarity can hinder the charge transport efficiency. In this study, we designed and synthesized an imidazole-based acceptor (A) unit for the first time and then investigated the impact of backbone planarity on charge transport capacity and power conversion efficiency (PCE). Backbone planarity was precisely tuned by incorporating isomeric alkyl chains on the thiophene π-bridge, resulting in four distinct polymer donors: MZC8-F, MZC8-Cl, MZEH-F, and MZEH-Cl. The results showed that the steric hindrance from the EH-branched alkyl chain induced backbone distortion and caused a blue-shift in the absorption spectrum. MZEH-Cl, with its poor planarity and excessively low HOMO energy level, achieved a PCE of just 7.6%. Through careful modulation, MZC8-Cl emerged as the most efficient, with a remarkable PCE of 17.3%, setting a new benchmark for imidazole-based polymer donors. This study not only deepens the understanding of the role of polymer backbone planarity in photovoltaic performance but also lays the groundwork for developing high-efficiency polymer donors.

Red edge effect and chromoselective photocatalysis with amorphous covalent triazine-based frameworks

Chromoselective photocatalysis offers an intriguing opportunity to enable a specific reaction pathway out of a potentially possible multiplicity for a given substrate by using a sensitizer that converts the energy of incident photon into the redox potential of the corresponding magnitude. Several sensitizers possessing different discrete redox potentials (high/low) upon excitation with photons of specific wavelength (short/long) have been reported. Herein, we report design of molecular structures of two-dimensional amorphous covalent triazine-based frameworks (CTFs) possessing intraband states close to the valence band with strong red edge effect (REE). REE enables generation of a continuum of excited sites characterized by their own redox potentials, with the magnitude proportional to the wavelength of incident photons. Separation of charge carriers in such materials depends strongly on the wavelength of incident light and is the primary parameter that defines efficacy of the materials in photocatalytic bromination of electron rich aromatic compounds. In dual Ni-photocatalysis, excitation of electrons from the intraband states to the conduction band of the CTF with 625 nm photons enables selective formation of C‒N cross-coupling products from arylhalides and pyrrolidine, while an undesirable dehalogenation process is completely suppressed.

Explaining and Fixing DFT Failures for Torsional Barriers

Most torsional barriers are predicted with high accuracies (about 1 kJ/mol) by standard semilocal functionals, but a small subset was found to have much larger errors. We created a database of almost 300 carbon-carbon torsional barriers, including 12 poorly behaved barriers, that stem from the Y═C-X group, where Y is O or S and X is a halide. Functionals with enhanced exchange mixing (about 50%) worked well for all barriers. We found that poor actors have delocalization errors caused by hyperconjugation. These problematic calculations are density-sensitive (i.e., DFT predictions change noticeably with the density), and using HF densities (HF-DFT) fixes these issues. For example, conventional B3LYP performs as accurately as exchange-enhanced functionals if the HF density is used. For long-chain conjugated molecules, HF-DFT can be much better than exchange-enhanced functionals. We suggest that HF-PBE0 has the best overall performance.

N-Oxide S-O chalcogen bonding in conjugated materials

Non-covalent bonding interactions, such as chalcogen bonding, can have a substantial effect on the electronic and physical properties of conjugated polymers and is largely dependent on the strength of interaction. Functional groups that are traditionally used to instill chalcogen bonding such as alkoxy or fluorine substituents can demand challenging synthetic effort, as well as have drastic effects on the electronics of a π-system. The incorporation of a N-oxide functionality into bithiazole-containing materials, a synthetically simple transformation, has been entirely overlooked until now. A systematic analysis of the effects of N-oxidation on the electronic and physical properties of bithiazole-containing materials has been undertaken. N-Oxidation has been found to affect the electronic band gap through increase of the HOMO and lowering of the LUMO. Furthermore, exceptionally strong intramolecular S-O chalcogen bonding interactions in the bithiazole core contribute to rigidification of the conjugated system. Computational analysis of this system has shown this N-oxide chalcogen bonding interaction to be significantly stronger than other chalcogen bonding interactions commonly exploited in conjugated materials.

Impact of Incorporating Nitrogen Atoms in Naphthalenediimide-Based Polymer Acceptors on the Charge Generation, Device Performance, and Stability of All-Polymer Solar Cells

Substitution of C atoms in a polymer backbone by N atoms allows for the facile tuning of the energy levels as well as the backbone conformation and packing structures of conjugated polymers. Herein, we report a series of three polymer acceptors (P_As) with N atoms introduced at different positions of the backbone and investigate how these N atoms affect the device performances of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). The three P_As, namely, P(NDI2DT-BTT), P(NDI2DT-PTT), and P(NDI2DT-BTTz), are composed of naphthalenediimide (NDI)-based and benzothiadiazole (BT)-based derivatives (dithiophene-BT (BTT), dithiophene-thiadiazolepyridine (PTT), and dithiazole-BT (BTTz)). The PTT and BTTz units are synthesized by replacing the C atoms in BT and thiophene, respectively, with N atoms, which effectively tune the optical, electrochemical, and charge-transporting properties of the corresponding P_As. The all-PSCs using poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl))benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene)-co-(1,3-di(5-thiophene-2-yl)-5,7-bis(2-ethylhexyl)benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c']dithiophene-4,8-dione)] (PBDB-T) as a polymer donor and P(NDI2DT-PTT) as P_A exhibit a significantly enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.95%, whereas the all-PSCs based on the other P_As show relatively lower PCEs (6.02% for PBDB-T:P(NDI2DT-BTT) and 1.43% for PBDB-T:P(NDI2DT-BTTz)). The high PCE of the PBDB-T:P(NDI2DT-PTT) device is due to the superior charge transfer and charge dissociation, resulting from the closely matched energy levels between PBDB-T and P(NDI2DT-PTT), as well as a more favorable bulk heterojunction morphology with improved miscibility. Importantly, the P(NDI2DT-PTT)-based all-PSC device shows improved air stability compared to the P(NDI2DT-BTT)-based device, which is most likely due to a decreased lowest unoccupied molecular orbital level of the P_A. Our findings suggest that the incorporation of N atoms into the P_As is an effective strategy for improving the efficiency and stability of all-PSCs.

Effects of incorporated pyrazine on the interchain packing and photovoltaic properties of wide-bandgap D–A polymers for non-fullerene polymer solar cells

The impact of using pyrazine as an acceptor core for designing donor–acceptor (D–A) based wide bandgap polymers for application in non-fullerene solar cells was evaluated.

Influence of imide-substituents on the H-type aggregates of perylene diimides bearing cetyloxy side-chains at bay positions

A series of perylene-3,4:9,10-tetracarboxylic acid diimides (PDIs, namely TYR-PDI, AEP-PDI, CET-PDI, ANP-PDI and KOD-PDI), comprising long linear cetyloxy side-chains functionalized at the 1,7-bay positions and the different substituents (i.e., hydrophobic/hydrophilic segments) symmetrically linked at the two imide-positions of the perylene core were synthesized to investigate the influence of imide-substituent patterns on the aggregation behaviours of PDIs. The photophysical properties of these PDIs were studied by UV-Vis absorption, fluorescence and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. The differences in the photophysical properties of the PDIs indicate (i) blue-shifted and broadening absorption properties in both solution and thin-films, (ii) red-shifted and broadening fluorescence behavior at their emission maximum in solution, however, blue-shifted fluorescence behavior in thin-films, and (iii) obviously longer fluorescence life-times corresponding to the existence of rotationally displaced H-type aggregates. The formation of short-range ordered rod-like microstructures through face-to-face alignment of columnar rectangular H-type PDI aggregates was rationalized by scanning electron microscopy. The X-ray diffraction study revealed that the formation of well-defined columnar rectangular (Col_rp) H-type PDI aggregates indicated a nearly constant intracolumnar stacking distance of ∼3.9 Å for all PDIs. All of these findings were consistent with the formation of hydrophobic/hydrophilic interactions between the imide-substituents in addition to the strong hydrophobic π-π stacking interactions between the conjugated perylene cores, which were enforced in the H-type PDI aggregates that spontaneously self-organized into Col_rp structures.

Enhancing the Efficiency of Polymer Solar Cells by Incorporation of 2,5-Difluorobenzene Units into the Polymer Backbone via Random Copolymerization

A series of conjugated polymers P0, P5, and P7 containing 0, 5, and 7 mol % 2,5-difluorobenzene units, respectively, were prepared and utilized as electron donors in polymer solar cells. Incorporation of a small amount of 2,5-difluorobenzene unit into the backbone of donor polymers can significantly increase their planarity and crystallinity as well as decrease their solubility. The improved molecular conformation can markedly affect the morphology of polymer:PC₇₁BM blend films. After incorporation of 5 mol % 2,5-difluorobenzene unit into the backbone of donor polymers, the domain size of blend films became smaller and the hole mobility increased. Increasing the content of 2,5-difluorobenzene to 7 mol % can further decrease the solubility of resulting polymers and resulted in poor solution processability. As a result, P5-based devices achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.5%, whereas P0 based devices gave a PCE of 7.8%.

Bithiazole: An Intriguing Electron-Deficient Building for Plastic Electronic Applications

The heterocyclic thiazole unit has been extensively used as electron-deficient building block in π-conjugated materials over the last decade. Its incorporation into organic semiconducting materials is particularly interesting due to its structural resemblance to the more commonly used thiophene building block, thus allowing the optoelectronic properties of a material to be tuned without significantly perturbing its molecular structure. Here, we discuss the structural differences between thiazole- and thiophene-based organic semiconductors, and the effects on the physical properties of the materials. An overview of thiazole-based polymers is provided, which have emerged over the past decade for organic electronic applications and it is discussed how the incorporation of thiazole has affected the device performance of organic solar cells and organic field-effect transistors. Finally, in conclusion, an outlook is presented on how thiazole-based polymers can be incorporated into all-electron deficient polymers in order to obtain high-performance acceptor polymers for use in bulk-heterojunction solar cells and as organic field-effect transistors. Computational methods are used to discuss some newly designed acceptor building blocks that have the potential to be polymerized with a fused bithiazole moiety, hence propelling the advancement of air-stable n-type organic semiconductors.

Effects of cyano (CN)-groups on the planarity, film morphology and photovoltaic performance of benzodithiophene-based polymers

A class of polymers (POT-DH, POT-HCN and POT-DCN) were synthesized and they contain the same donor (BDT) and acceptor units but different numbers of cyano (CN)-groups, i.e. 0, 1 and 2.

High-crystalline medium-band-gap polymers consisting of benzodithiophene and benzotriazole derivatives for organic photovoltaic cells

Two semiconducting conjugated polymers were synthesized via Stille polymerization. The structures combined unsubstituted or (triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl (TIPS)-substituted 2,6-bis(trimethylstannyl)benzo[1,2-b:4.5-b']dithiophene (BDT) as a donor unit and benzotriazole with a symmetrically branched alkyl side chain (DTBTz) as an acceptor unit. We investigated the effects of the different BDT moieties on the optical, electrochemical, and photovoltaic properties of the polymers and the film crystallinities and carrier mobilities. The optical-band-gap energies were measured to be 1.97 and 1.95 eV for PBDT-DTBTz and PTIPSBDT-DTBTz, respectively. Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices were fabricated and power conversion efficiencies of 5.5% and 2.9% were found for the PTIPSBDT-DTBTz- and PBDT-DTBTz-based devices, respectively. This difference was explained by the more optimal morphology and higher carrier mobility in the PTIPSBDT-DTBTz-based devices. This work demonstrates that, under the appropriate processing conditions, TIPS groups can change the molecular ordering and lower the highest occupied molecular orbital level, providing the potential for improved solar cell performance.

Photoinduced charge transfer in donor-acceptor (DA) copolymer: fullerene bis-adduct polymer solar cells

Polymer solar cells (PSCs) consisting of fullerene bis-adduct and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) blends have shown higher efficiencies than P3HT:phenyl C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) devices, because of the high-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level of the fullerene bis-adducts. In contrast, the use of fullerene bis-adducts in donor-acceptor (DA) copolymer systems typically causes a decrease in the device's performance due to the decreased short-circuit current (J(SC)) and the fill factor (FF). However, the reason for such poor performance in DA copolymer:fullerene bis-adduct blends is not fully understood. In this work, bulk-heterojunction (BHJ)-type PSCs composed of three different electron donors with four different electron acceptors were chosen and compared. The three electron donors were (1) poly[(4,8-bis-(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene)-2,6-diyl-alt-(5-octylthieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione)-1,3-diyl] (PBDTTPD), (2) poly[(4,8-bis-(2-ethylhexyloxy)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene)-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2-ethylhexanoyl)-thieno[3,4-b]thiophene)-2,6-diyl] (PBDTTT-C), and (3) P3HT polymers. The four electron acceptors were (1) PCBM, (2) indene-C(60) monoadduct (ICMA), (3) indene-C(60) bis-adduct (ICBA), and (4) indene-C(60) tris-adduct (ICTA). To understand the difference in the performance of BHJ-type PSCs for the three different polymers in terms of the choice of fullerene acceptor, the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the blends were measured by the external quantum efficiency (EQE), photoluminescence, grazing incidence X-ray scattering, and transient absorption spectroscopy. We observed that while the molecular packing and optical properties cannot be the main reasons for the dramatic decrease in the PCE of the DA copolymers and ICBA, the value of the driving force for charge transfer (ΔG(CT)) is a key parameter for determining the change in J(SC) and device efficiency in the DA copolymer- and P3HT-based PSCs in terms of fullerene acceptor. The low EQE and J(SC) in PBDTTPD and PBDTTT-C blended with ICBA and ICTA were attributed to an insufficient ΔG(CT) due to the higher LUMO levels of the fullerene multiadducts. Quantitative information on the efficiency of the charge transfer was obtained by comparing the polaron yield, lifetime, and exciton dissociation probability in the DA copolymer:fullerene acceptor films.