DFT/TD-DFT characterization of conjugational electronic structures and spectral properties of materials based on thieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene for organic photovoltaic and solar cell applications

Abstract

In this work, a theoretical study on five organic π-conjugated molecules based on thieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene using together quantum methods, density functional theory (DFT) and its derivative time dependent-density functional theory (TD-DFT) is reported. Different electron side groups were introduced as a bridge to investigate their effects on the electronic structure; The HOMO, LUMO, chemical hardness (η), chemical potential (μ), electronegativity (χ), electrophilicity power (ω), reorganization energy total (λtotal), open circuit voltage (Voc), the gap energy and NBO analysis of these compounds have been reported and discussed in this paper. Thus, our aim is to explore their electronic and spectroscopic properties on the basis of the DFT quantum chemical calculations, and at the same time, we are interested to make an idea on the parameters influencing the photovoltaic efficiency toward a better understanding of the structure–property relationships. The calculated results of these compounds reveal that C4, C5, with thiophene and thienopyrazine as a bridge group respectively, can be used as a potential donor of electron in organic Bulk Heterojunction solar cells (BHJ), due to its best electronic and optical properties and good photovoltaic parameters. The study of electronic, optical and structural properties of these compounds could help to design more efficient functional photovoltaic organic materials.