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The role of isomeric alkyl chains of polymer donors on charge-transfer processes in non-fullerene organic photovoltaics: a theoretical investigation

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Abstract

To investigate the effects of polymer donors with isomeric alkyl chains on the interfacial charge-transfer (CT) processes, the rates of exciton dissociation (kED) and charge recombination (kCR) have been calculated for complexes PM6/Y6 and PM6i/Y6, where isomer PM6i was designed by shifting the side chains in the electron-withdrawing units to the thiophene-bridges based on PM6. For complex PM6/Y6, kED of PM6 and Y6 exciton are calculated to be 1010–1012 s−1 and 1012–1013 s−1, and kCR is 1011–1012 s−1 for recombination of the lowest CT (CT0) excitons into the lowest triplet states of Y6, which are consistent with the experimental results. When going to complex PM6i/Y6, kED of PM6i exciton is higher than that of PM6 exciton, and of Y6 exciton is decreased to 1011–1012 s−1, but kCR is decreased to 1010–1011 s−1. The calculated results reveal that isomeric alkyl chains of polymer donors can enhance the polymer exciton dissociation and suppress the charge-recombination processes, underlining the important role of isomeric alkyl chains in design of polymer donors for high performance non-fullerene organic photovoltaics.

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The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files.

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Funding

This work is supported by Hebei Natural Science Foundation (No. B2021407003), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.51703049), the Scientific Research Project of Hebei Provincial Department of Education (No. QN2021068), and the Hebei Province’s Funding Project for Introducing Overseas Scholars (No. C20230119).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemical Engineering, Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Xingxing Shen, Shu Yang, Kui Niu, Yuan He, Dan Luo & Lu Han

  2. College of Chemistry/Institute of Polymers and Energy Chemistry (IPEC), Nanchang University, Nanchang, 330031, China

    Lie Chen

  3. Hebei Key Laboratory of Active Components and Functions in Natural Products, Hebei Normal University of Science & Technology, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Kui Niu

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  1. Xingxing Shen
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Contributions

Xingxing Shen and Shu Yang wrote the main manuscript text, Kui Niu prepared Fig. 1–2, Yuan He and Dan Luo prepared Figs. 3–4, Lu Han prepared Table 1, 2, and 3 and participate in writing the manuscript, Xingxing Shen, Shu Yang, and Lie Chen reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xingxing Shen, Lu Han or Lie Chen.

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Shen, X., Yang, S., Niu, K. et al. The role of isomeric alkyl chains of polymer donors on charge-transfer processes in non-fullerene organic photovoltaics: a theoretical investigation. J Nanopart Res 26, 86 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-024-05997-2

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