Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted <italic style="font-style: italic">π</italic>-Bridges on Dibenzo[<italic style="font-style: italic">a</italic>,<italic style="font-style: italic">c</italic>]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance

Chun-Xian Ke; Xue Lai; Heng-Tao Wang; Ming-Rui Pu; Tahir Rehman; Yu-Lin Zhu; Feng He

doi:10.1007/s10118-022-2719-z

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Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted π-Bridges on Dibenzo[a,c]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2022-07-21

- Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted π-Bridges on Dibenzo[a,c]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 40, Issue 8, Pages: 889-897(2022)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.Shenzhen Grubbs Institute and Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
  b.Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Author bio：
  
  hef@sustech.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-022-2719-z
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Chun-Xian Ke, Xue Lai, Heng-Tao Wang, et al. Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted π-Bridges on Dibenzo[a,c]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance. [J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 40(8):889-897(2022)
DOI：

Chun-Xian Ke, Xue Lai, Heng-Tao Wang, et al. Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted π-Bridges on Dibenzo[a,c]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance. [J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science 40(8):889-897(2022) DOI： 10.1007/s10118-022-2719-z.

摘要

Thiophene π-bridge alkyl substitution demonstrated an important strategy to enhance the photovoltaic performance of the polymer solar cells. Benefit from a good balance of solubility and molecular planarity, the n-hexyl substituted polymer donor PBP-C6 based devices, with Y5 as acceptor, exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency up to 11.60% among three donor polymers.

Abstract

Selection of the strategically substituted alkyl chains has a significant effect to modulate the physical properties of conjugated polymers, electro-optical characteristics, and active layer morphology of the corresponding polymer solar cells (PSCs). Herein, we systematically synthesized three dibenzo[,a,c,]phenazine based D-,π,-A donor polymers named PBP-C0, PBP-C8, and PBP-C6 with different alkyl substitutions on thiophene ,π,-bridges, without alkyl, 2-ethylhexyl and ,n,-hexyl groups, respectively. The absence of the alkyl chain (PBP-C0) on the ,π,-bridge caused poor solubility and unfavorable miscibility with the Y5 acceptor, leading to the lower photovoltaic performance. The bulky alkyl chain of 2-ethylhexyl on the ,π,-bridge group caused the twisting of PBP-C8 conjugated backbone, which limits the charge transport and also compromises the photovoltaic performance. In contrast, the PBP-C6-with flexible linear alkyl chains has almost planar curvature geometry resulting in the small uniform domain size and appropriate phase separation in the blend film morphology. These favorable properties enhanced the exciton generation to dissociation, charge carrier mobility, and also lowered the charge recombination. Among three polymers, PBP-C6-based devices exhibit the best PCE of 11.60%. From these results, thiophene ,π,-bridge alkyl substitution demonstrated an important strategy to adjust energy level, absorption, and phase separation morphology to enhance the photovoltaic performance of the PSCs.

关键词

Keywords

π-Bridge Alkyl chain engineeringPhenazinePolymer donorPolymer solar cell

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Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted π-Bridges on Dibenzo[a,c]phenazine Based Polymer Donors towards Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance

DOI：10.1007/s10118-022-2719-z

摘要

Abstract

关键词

Keywords

references