The Impact of Acceptor-Acceptor Homocoupling on the Optoelectronic Properties and Photovoltaic Performance of PDTSQx(ff) Low Bandgap Polymers

Push-pull-type conjugated polymers applied in organic electronics do not always contain a perfect alternation of donor and acceptor building blocks. Misscouplings can occur, which have a noticeable effect on the device performance. In this work, the influence of homocoupling on the optoelectronic properties and photovoltaic performance of PDTSQx(ff) polymers is investigated, with a specific focus on the quinoxaline acceptor moieties. A homocoupled biquinoxaline segment is intentionally inserted in specific ratios during the polymerization. These homocoupled units cause a gradually blue-shifted absorption, while the highest occupied molecular orbital energy levels decrease only significantly upon the presence of 75-100% of homocouplings. Density functional theory calculations show that the homocoupled acceptor unit generates a twist in the polymer backbone, which leads to a decreased conjugation length and a reduced aggregation tendency. The virtually defect-free PDTSQx(ff) affords a solar cell efficiency of 5.4%, which only decreases substantially upon incorporating a homocoupling degree over 50%.

Publication year:2018

Keywords:homocoupling, polymer solar cells, donor–acceptor polymers, donor-acceptor polymers, Stille crosscoupling, Stille crosscoupling

BOF-keylabel:yes

IOF-keylabel:yes

BOF-publication weight:6

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Government, Higher Education, Private

Accessibility:Open