A novel functional polyurethane as a dielectric layer for organic thin-film transistors

A polyurethane material with a high dielectric constant was used to regulate the grain size of p-6P.

Orthogonal electronic coupling in multicentre arylamine mixed-valence compounds based on a dibenzofulvene–thiophene conjugated bridge

Novel H-shaped tetrarylamine mixed valence compounds showing orthogonal electronic coupling generate voltage-dependent electro-optical modulation in the near infrared region.

Organic thin-film transistors with novel high-k polymers as dielectric layers

A series of novel polymers are promising candidates for the exploration of low-voltage organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs).

Theoretical studies on the effect of a bithiophene bridge with different substituent groups (R = H, CH3, OCH3 and CN) in donor–π–acceptor copolymers for organic solar cell applications

The design of a series of D–π–A copolymers.

Photocurrent enhancement of BODIPY-based solution-processed small-molecule solar cells by dimerization via the meso position

Three 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indancene (BODIPY)-based small molecule donors H-T-BO, Br-T-BO, and DIMER were synthesized and fully characterized. Although modification at the meso position has a subtle influence on the light-harvesting ability, energy levels, and phase sizes, it has a striking effect on the packing behavior in solid film as two-dimension grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (2D GIXRD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirm. Br-T-BO exhibits better packing ordering than H-T-BO in pristine film, which is beneficial from reinforced intermolecular interaction from halogen atoms. However, when [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) is blended, no diffraction patterns corresponding to the monomeric donor can be seen from the XRD data and both H-T-BO- and Br-T-BO-based blend films give a slightly blue-shifting absorption peak with respect to their neat ones, both of which imply destruction of the crystalline structure. As for DIMER, the enhancement of the intermolecular interaction arises not only from the expansion of the backbone but the "steric pairing effect" brought on by its twisted structure. When blended with PC71BM, the diffraction patterns of DIMER are, however, kept well and the absorption peak position remains unchanged, which indicates the ordered packing of DIMER is held well in blend film. In coincidence with the fact that packing ordering improves from H-T-BO to Br-T-BO and DIMER in pristine films and the ordered packing of DIMER even in blend film, DIMER-based devices show the highest and most balanced hole/electron mobility of 1.16 × 10(-3)/0.90 × 10(-3) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)with respect to Br-T-BO (4.71 × 10(-4)/2.09 × 10(-4) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)) and H-T-BO (4.27 × 10(-5)/1.00 × 10(-5) cm(2) V(-1) s(-1)) based ones. The short-circuit current density of the three molecule-based cells follows the same trend from H-T-BO (6.80) to Br-T-BO (7.62) and then to DIMER (11.28 mA cm(-2)). Finally, the H-T-BO-, Br-T-BO-, and DIMER-based optimal device exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 1.56%, 1.96%, and 3.13%, respectively.

Additive-assisted control over phase-separated nanostructures by manipulating alkylthienyl position at donor backbone for solution-processed, non-fullerene, all-small-molecule solar cells

A non-fullerene, all-small-molecule solar cell (NF-SMSC) device uses the blend of a small molecule donor and a small molecule acceptor as the active layer. Aggregation ability is a key factor for this type of solar cell. Herein, we used the alkylthienyl unit to tune the aggregation ability of the diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based small molecule donors. Replacing two alkoxyl units in BDT-O-DPP with two alkylthienyl units yields BDT-T-DPP, and further introducing another two alkylthienyl units into the backbone produces BDT-T-2T-DPP. With the introduction of alkylthienyl, the backbone becomes twisted. As a result, the ππ-stacking strength, aggregation ability, and crystallite size all obey the sequence of BDT-O-DPP > BDT-T-DPP > BDT-T-2T-DPP. When selected a reported perylene diimide dimer of bis-PDI-T-EG as acceptor, the best NF-SMSC device exhibits a power conversion efficiency of 1.34, 2.01, and 1.62%, respectively, for the BDT-O-DPP, BDT-T-DPP, and BDT-T-2T-DPP based system. The BDT-T-DPP/bis-PDI-T-EG system yields the best efficiency of 2.01% among the three combinations. This is due to the moderate aggregation ability of BDT-T-DPP yields moderate phase size of 30-50 nm, whereas the strong aggregation ability of BDT-O-DPP gives a bigger size of 50-80 nm, and the weak aggregation ability of BDT-T-2T-DPP produces a smaller size of 10-30 nm. The BDT-T-DPP/bis-PDI-T-EG combination exhibits balanced hole/electron mobility of 0.022/0.016 cm(2)/(V s), whereas the BDT-O-DPP/bis-PDI-T-EG and the BDT-T-2T-DPP/bis-PDI-T-EG blend show a hole/electron mobility of 0.0011/0.0057 cm(2)/(V s) and 0.0016/0.11 cm(2)/(V s), respectively.

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.

Solution-processed DPP-based small molecule that gives high photovoltaic efficiency with judicious device optimization

A solution-processed diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based small molecule, namely BDT-DPP, with broad absorption and suitable energy levels has been synthesized. The widely used solvents of chloroform (CF) and o-dichlorobenzene (o-DCB) were used as the spin-coating solvent, respectively, and 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) was used as additive to fabricate efficient photovoltaic devices with BDT-DPP as the donor material and PC71BM as the acceptor material. Devices fabricated from CF exhibit poor fill factor (FF) of 43%, low short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 6.86 mA/cm(2), and moderate power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.4%, due to rapid evaporation of CF, leading to poor morphology of the active layer. When 0.3% DIO was added, the FF and Jsc were improved to 60% and 8.49 mA/cm(2), respectively, because of the better film morphology. Active layer spin-coated from the high-boiling-point solvent of o-DCB shows better phase separation than that from CF, because of the slow drying nature of o-DCB, offering sufficient time for the self-organization of active-layer. Finally, using o-DCB as the parent solvent and 0.7% DIO as the cosolvent, we obtained optimized devices with continuous interpenetrating network films, affording a Jsc of 11.86 mA/cm(2), an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.72 V, an FF of 62%, and a PCE of 5.29%. This PCE is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest efficiency reported to date for devices prepared from the solution-processed DPP-based small molecules.