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Side-chain engineering of high-efficiency conjugated polymer photovoltaic materials

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  • Special Issue Organic Photovoltaics
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Abstract

In recent years, conjugated polymers have attracted great attention in the application as photovoltaic donor materials in polymer solar cells (PSCs). Broad absorption, lower-energy bandgap, higher hole mobility, relatively lower HOMO energy levels, and higher solubility are important for the conjugated polymer donor materials to achieve high photovoltaic performance. Side-chain engineering plays a very important role in optimizing the physicochemical properties of the conjugated polymers. In this article, we review recent progress on the side-chain engineering of conjugated polymer donor materials, including the optimization of flexible side-chains for balancing solubility and intermolecular packing (aggregation), electron-withdrawing substituents for lowering HOMO energy levels, and two-dimension (2D)-conjugated polymers with conjugated side-chains for broadening absorption and enhancing hole mobility. After the molecular structural optimization by side-chain engineering, the 2D-conjugated polymers based on benzodithiophene units demonstrated the best photovoltaic performance, with power-conversion efficiency higher than 9%.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Zhi-Guo Zhang & Yongfang Li

  2. 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. Zhi-Guo Zhang
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Zhang, ZG., Li, Y. Side-chain engineering of high-efficiency conjugated polymer photovoltaic materials. Sci. China Chem. 58, 192–209 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-014-5260-2

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