Synthesis of Poly(benzothiadiazole-co-dithienobenzodithiophenes) and Effect of Thiophene Insertion for High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells

Abstract

We describe herein the synthesis of novel donor-acceptor conjugated polymers with dithienobenzodithiophenes (DTBDT) as the electron donor and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole as the electron acceptor for high-performance organic photovoltaics (OPVs). We studied the effects of strategically inserting thiophene into the DTBDT as a substituent on the skeletal structure on the opto-electronic performances of fabricated devices. From UV/Vis absorption, electrochemical, and field-effect transistor analyses, we found that the thiophene-containing DTBDT derivative can substantially increase the orbital overlap area between adjacent conjugated chains and thus dramatically enhance charge-carrier mobility up to 0.55cm(2)V(-1)s(-1). The outstanding charge-transport characteristics of this polymer allowed the realization of high-performance organic solar cells with a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 5.1%. Detailed studies on the morphological factors that enable the maximum PCE of the polymer solar cells are discussed along with a hole/electron mobility analysis based on the space-charge-limited current model.