

FOLLOWUS
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
hef@sustech.edu.cn
Received:04 January 2022,
Revised:2022-2-16,
Accepted:17 February 2022,
Online First:20 May 2022,
Published:01 August 2022
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Ke, C. X.; Lai, X.; Wang, H. T.; Pu, M. R.; Rehman, T.; Zhu, Y. L.; He, F. Subtle effect of alkyl substituted π-bridges on dibenzo[a,c]phenazine based polymer donors towards enhanced photovoltaic performance. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2022, 40, 889–897
Chun-Xian Ke, Xue Lai, Heng-Tao Wang, et al. Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted
Ke, C. X.; Lai, X.; Wang, H. T.; Pu, M. R.; Rehman, T.; Zhu, Y. L.; He, F. Subtle effect of alkyl substituted π-bridges on dibenzo[a,c]phenazine based polymer donors towards enhanced photovoltaic performance. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2022, 40, 889–897 DOI: 10.1007/s10118-022-2719-z.
Chun-Xian Ke, Xue Lai, Heng-Tao Wang, et al. Subtle Effect of Alkyl Substituted
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.
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.
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