Poly(3-hexylthiophene-co-benzothiadiazole) (THBT) as an electron-accepting polymer for normal and inverted type all-polymer solar cells

Organic Phototransistors With All-Polymer Bulk Heterojunction Layers of p-Type and n-Type Sulfur-Containing Conjugated Polymers

“…In particular, the absorption tail (not scattering corrected) for THBT-ht reaches as far as ∼750 nm whereas P3HT alone should not absorb photons past ∼650 nm (red light). The measured ionization potential of THBT-ht was similar to that reported previously for THBT [53], leading to the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy of -5.7 eV. Depending on blend microstructure, this deep-lying HOMO might be expected to interrupt hole-transport (c.f.…”

“…The THBT-ht polymer (weight-average molecular weight = ∼10 kDa, polydispersity index = 2.2) was synthesized according to the procedure described in our previous report [53], but 3-hexylthiophene (ht) groups were attached to the end of the THBT polymer chain through an end-capping reaction by adding 2, 1, 3-benzothiadiazole-4, 7-bis(boronic acid pinacol ester) (2B-BT) and 2-bromo-3-hexylthiophene (Br-HT). The P3HT polymer (weight-average molecular weight = 70 kDa, polydispersity index = 1.6, regioregularity = 95%) was purchased from Solaris (Canada) and used without further purification.…”

“…1(a) for chemical structure) as a replacement n-type polymer. THBT has relatively narrow band gap (1.8 eV) and deep-lying lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy (3.9 eV) [53]. In particular, hexylthiophene-end capped THBT polymers, namely THBT-ht, were newly synthesized to avoid the influence of the un-reacted bromine and/or boron end groups in the standard Suzukicoupled THBT polymer.…”

All-conjugated donor–acceptor graft/block copolymers as single active components and surfactants in all-polymer solar cells

“…All-polymer solar cells, where the electron donor and acceptor in the active layer are all polymer-related materials, have attracted considerable attention as an alternative to polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cell due to their potential advantages, such as simultaneous absorption of both polymer donor and acceptor, readily tunable molecular energy levels, and enhanced mechanical and thermal properties (Cao et al 2013;Chen et al 2013;Facchetti 2013;Grenier et al 2013;Han et al 2013;Liu et al 2013). Though the PCEs of the all-polymer solar cells are lower than that of the fullerene-based organic solar cells, great progresses have been achieved in the past 2 years (Benten et al 2016;Kang et al 2014;Lee et al 2015;Zhou et al 2014a, b), and a high PCE >8 % has been reported (Gao et al 2015).…”

Influence of Physical Load on the Stability of Organic Solar Cells with Polymer : Fullerene Bulk Heterojunction Nanolayers

“…A thermal annealing method has been proposed for crystalline polymerbased BHJ systems [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] , while an additive method is currently used for less-crystalline (amorphous) polymer-based BHJ layers [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] . However, it is doubtable that such an optimized BHJ layer (system) can withstand external physical loads such as pressing, hitting, rubbing and the like when it comes to the fullerene nano-domains dispersed in the polymer:fullerene mixture structures.…”