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New bulky side chain substituted benzodithiophene based 2D-conjugated polymers for optoelectronic applications

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Abstract

In order to explore the effect of bulky side chain substituted benzodithiophene (BDT) based polymers on optoelectronic properties, here we have designed and synthesized two new 2D conjugated donor–acceptor (D–A) copolymers P1 and P2 via Stille coupling of 2,3-bis(4-(2-ethylhexyloxy)phenyl)thiophene (BAPT) substituted BDT as (D) unit and 1,3-di(2-bromothien-5-yl)-5-(2-ethylhexyl)thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) or 2,5-ethylhexyl-3,6-bis(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]-pyrrole-1,4-dione (DPP) as (A) units. The new polymers P1 and P2 showed broad absorption windows with vibronic shoulders indicate π–π stacking of polymer backbones. In addition P1 and P2 showed deep highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels of −5.50, −5.35 eV, respectively which allow delivering high open-circuit voltages (V oc) in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (BHJ PSCs). The donor photon energy loss (E g–eV oc) of P1 and P2 are 0.87 and 0.57 which is comparable to the previous reports. BHJ PSCs were fabricated with P1 and P2, and they displayed high V oc of 0.99 and 0.78 V, respectively, with maximum power conversion efficiency of 2.05 and 0.96 % in additive free BHJ PSCs. The polymer field effect transistor mobilities of P1 and P2 are 8.0 × 10−3, 9.2 × 10−5 cm2/V s, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grant fund from the National Research Foundation (NRF) (2011-0028320) and the Pioneer Research Center Program through the NRF (2013M3C1A3065522) by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry Education, Graduate Department of Chemical Materials, Institute for Plastic Information and Energy Materials, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735, Republic of Korea

    Kakaraparthi Kranthiraja, Sang Ho Park, Woosum Cho & Sung-Ho Jin

  2. Department of Energy and Materials Engineering, Dongguk University, 26 Pil-dong, 3 ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, 100-715, South Korea

    Won-Tae Park & Yong-Young Noh

  3. Department of Chemistry, Dong-A University, Busan, Korea

    Jae Wook Lee

Authors
  1. Kakaraparthi Kranthiraja
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  2. Sang Ho Park
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  3. Woosum Cho
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  4. Won-Tae Park
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  5. Yong-Young Noh
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  6. Sung-Ho Jin
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  7. Jae Wook Lee
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Correspondence to Sung-Ho Jin or Jae Wook Lee.

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Kranthiraja, K., Park, S.H., Cho, W. et al. New bulky side chain substituted benzodithiophene based 2D-conjugated polymers for optoelectronic applications. Polym. Bull. 73, 2567–2581 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-016-1686-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-016-1686-3

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