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Effect of furan π-bridge on the photovoltaic performance of D-A copolymers based on bi(alkylthio-thienyl)benzodithiophene and fluorobenzotriazole

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Abstract

The medium band gap donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymer J61 based on bi(alkylthio-thienyl)benzodithiophene as donor unit and fluorobenzotriazole as acceptor unit and thiophene as π-bridge has demonstrated excellent photovoltaic performance as donor material in nonfullerene polymer solar cells (PSCs) with narrow bandgap n-type organic semiconductor ITIC as acceptor. For studying the effect of π-bridges on the photovoltaic performance of the D-A copolymers, here we synthesized a new D-A copolymer J61-F based on the same donor and acceptor units as J61 but with furan π-bridges instead of thiophene. J61-F possesses a deeper the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level at −5.45 eV in comparison with that (−5.32 eV) of J61. The non-fullerene PSCs based on J61-F:ITIC exhibited a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.24% with a higher open-circuit voltage (V oc) of 0.95 V, which is benefitted from the lower-lying HOMO energy level of J61-F donor material. The results indicate that main chain engineering by changing π-bridges is another effective way to tune the electronic energy levels of the conjugated D-A copolymers for the application as donor materials in non-fullerene PSCs.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program, Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2014CB643501), Beijing Nova program (Z171100001117074), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91633301, 91433117, 21374124), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB12030200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic Solids at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Tinghai Yan, Haijun Bin, Yankang Yang, Zhi-Guo Zhang & Yongfang Li

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Tinghai Yan, Haijun Bin, Yankang Yang, Lingwei Xue & Yongfang Li

  3. Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Yongfang Li

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  1. Tinghai Yan
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  2. Haijun Bin
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  3. Yankang Yang
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  4. Lingwei Xue
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  5. Zhi-Guo Zhang
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  6. Yongfang Li
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Correspondence to Zhi-Guo Zhang or Yongfang Li.

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Yan, T., Bin, H., Yang, Y. et al. Effect of furan π-bridge on the photovoltaic performance of D-A copolymers based on bi(alkylthio-thienyl)benzodithiophene and fluorobenzotriazole. Sci. China Chem. 60, 537–544 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-017-9030-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-017-9030-9

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