Head-to-Head Linkage Containing Bithiophene-Based Polymeric Semiconductors for Highly Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

Shengbin Shi; Qiaogan Liao; Yumin Tang; Han Guo; Xin Zhou; Yulun Wang; Tingbin Yang; Yongye Liang; Xing Cheng; Feng Liu; Xugang Guo

doi:10.1002/adma.201603112

Head-to-Head Linkage Containing Bithiophene-Based Polymeric Semiconductors for Highly Efficient Polymer Solar Cells

Adv Mater. 2016 Dec;28(45):9969-9977. doi: 10.1002/adma.201603112. Epub 2016 Sep 22.

Authors

Shengbin Shi¹, Qiaogan Liao¹, Yumin Tang¹, Han Guo¹, Xin Zhou¹, Yulun Wang¹, Tingbin Yang¹, Yongye Liang¹, Xing Cheng¹, Feng Liu^{2

3}, Xugang Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering and The Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Printed Organic Electronics, South University of Science and Technology of China, No. 1088, Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
³ Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.

PMID: 27717205
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201603112

Abstract

Narrow bandgap (1.37-1.46 eV) polymers incorporating a head-to-head linkage containing 3-alkoxy-3'-alkyl-2,2'-bithiophene are synthesized. The head-to-head linkage enables polymers with sufficient solubility and the noncovalent sulfur-oxygen interaction affords polymers with high degree of backbone planarity and film ordering. When integrated into polymer solar cells, the polymers show a promising power conversion efficiency approaching 10%.

Keywords: film morphology; organic electronics; polymer semiconductors; polymer solar cells; sulfur-oxygen interactions.