Molecular charge transfer dopants either oxidize or reduce the polymeric backbone through accepting or donating an electron. In such cases, the neutralizing counter-ion to the charge carrier on the polymer is the dopant molecule. [1] Protonating the polymer backbone with a Brønsted acid provides a similar effect with the proton donor acting as the counter-ion. [2,3] Electrochemical methods can be used to supply, or remove, electrons if the polymer is supported by a conductive substrate with infiltration of a counter-ion from an electrolyte. [4] These methods effectively tune the electrical conductivity in polymeric semiconductors for emerging applications including bioelectronics [5] and thermoelectrics. [6] For all doping mechanisms, the interactions that exist between a conjugated polymer, a charge carrier, and its corresponding counter-ion are difficult to ascertain. Our lack of understanding stems from a multitude of complications that arise from doping polymers. The morphology of thin films can evolve upon infiltration of dopants, which convolutes the effects of morphology and carrier concentration on the resulting electrical properties. [7] The use of dopants of varying molecular sizes simultaneously changes steric interactions and the energetics of charge transfer, along with the additional possibility of the formation of charge transfer complexes. [8-10] These confounding factors make simple relationships, like how the degree of interaction between the dopant counter-ion and charge carrier impacts the electronic mobility, challenging to determine. A recent formalism to elucidate the importance of interactions between charge carriers and their associated counterions in semiconducting polymers was developed through examining their spectroscopic signatures in the infrared region. The optical properties of polaronic charge carriers in semiconducting polymers are affected by factors such as electronic/vibrational coupling between chains, coulombic interactions, and disorder. [11,12] One model, developed by Spano and coworkers, rationalizes the optical transitions of polaronic carriers in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) using a Holstein Hamiltonian modified to incorporate disorder that is present in crystallites of polymers. [13] Both the predicted energies of the optical transitions and their intensities were in good agreement with experimental observations of field-induced charge carriers Since doped polymers require a charge-neutralizing counter-ion to maintain charge neutrality, tailored and high degrees of doping in organic semiconductors requires an understanding of the coupling between ionic and electronic carrier motion. A method of counter-ion exchange is utilized using the polymeric semiconductor poly[2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b] thiophene]-C 14 to deconvolute the effects of ionic/polaronic interactions with the electrical properties of doped semiconducting polymers. In particular, exchanging the counter-ions of the dopant nitrosonium hexafluorophosphate enables investigation into the...

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Poly­(indacenodithiophene-benzothiadiazole) has received significant interest because of its exceptional hole mobility despite its near-amorphous thin-film morphology and brittleness at low M n. In comparison, poly­(indacenodithiophene-benzopyrollodione) (PIDTBPD) has a lower hole mobility but is exceptionally ductile at similar M n. Herein, we synthesize random indacenodithiophene (IDT) copolymers with varying amounts of incorporated benzothiadiazole and benzopyrollodione (BPD), which introduces varied degrees of backbone twist to each respective polymer system. This allows us to elucidate how the BPD monomer introduction leads to conformational and morphological changes that influence the crack onset strain (CoS) and hole mobility of these near-amorphous IDT copolymers and the rates by which each material property responds to sequentially larger BPD incorporation. Results of density functional theory calculations suggest that BPD introduction does not lead to significant differences in backbone linearity between the studied polymers, and grazing incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering demonstrates that the degree of crystallinity within thin films is not significantly altered. It does, however, lead to a more varied circular distribution of the hexadecyl side chains around the polymer backbone. With increasing BPD incorporation, a crossover point between CoS and hole mobility emerges. At this crossover point, a random copolymer with 30% BPD introduction displays increased CoS and an average hole mobility value equal to that of the PIDTBPD system, suggesting that hole mobility is more sensitive to torsion along the polymer backbone, while the response of the CoS is relatively delayed. The data also suggest that the increase in CoS with increasing BPD content does not arise because of differences in rigidity but because the more circular distribution of the side chains makes polymer chains with sufficient BPD content better able to flow.

In view of a rapid development and increase in efficiency of organic solar cells, reaching their long‐term operational stability represents now one of the main challenges to be addressed on the way toward commercialization of this photovoltaic technology. However, intrinsic degradation pathways occurring in organic solar cells under realistic operational conditions remain poorly understood. The light‐induced dimerization of the fullerene‐based acceptor materials discovered recently is considered to be one of the main causes for burn‐in degradation of organic solar cells. In this work, it is shown that not only the fullerene derivatives but also different types of conjugated polymers and small molecules undergo similar light‐induced crosslinking regardless of their chemical composition and structure. In the case of conjugated polymers, crosslinking of macromolecules leads to a rapid increase in their molecular weight and consequent loss of solubility, which can be revealed in a straightforward way by gel permeation chromatography analysis via a reduction/loss of signal and/or smaller retention times. Results of this work, thus, shift the paradigm of research in the field toward designing a new generation of organic absorbers with enhanced intrinsic photochemical stability in order to reach practically useful operation lifetimes required for successful commercialization of organic photovoltaics.

Organic solar cells incorporating non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) have reached remarkable power conversion efficiencies of over 18%. Unlike fullerene derivatives, NFAs tend to crystallize from solutions, resulting in bulk heterojunctions that include a crystalline acceptor phase. This must be considered in any morphology-function models. Here, it is confirmed that high-performing solution-processed indacenodithienothiophene-based NFAs, i.e., ITIC and its derivatives ITIC-M, ITIC-2F, and ITIC-Th, exhibit at least two crystalline forms. In addition to highly ordered polymorphs that form at high temperatures, NFAs arrange into a low-temperature metastable phase that is readily promoted via solution processing and leads to the highest device efficiencies. Intriguingly, the low-temperature forms seem to feature a continuous network that favors charge transport despite of a poorly order along the π-π stacking direction. As the optical absorption of the structurally more disordered low-temperature phase can surpass that of the more ordered polymorphs while displaying comparable-or even higher-charge transport properties, it is argued that such a packing structure is an important feature for reaching highest device efficiencies, thus, providing guidelines for future materials design and crystal engineering activities.