Abstract
A new heteroarylene-vinylene donor-acceptor low bandgap polymer, the poly(DEHT-V-BTD), containing vinylene-spaced efficient donor (dialkoxythiophene) and acceptor (benzothiadiazole) moieties, is presented. Electropolymerization has been carried out by several electrochemical techniques and the results are compared. In particular, the pulsed potentiostatic method was able to provide layers with sufficient amounts of material. Cyclic voltammetries showed reversible behavior towards both p- and n-doping. The HOMO, LUMO, and bandgap energies were estimated to be −5.3, −3.6 and 1.8 eV, respectively. In situ UV-Vis measurements have established that the presence of the vinylene group stabilizes the formation of polaronic charge carriers even at high doping levels.
Highlights
Low bandgap polymers are promising materials for their possible use in a wide range of applications, in particular as donor p-conducting layers in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells, wherein they are commonly used in combination with fullerene derivatives such as [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as acceptor n-conducting materials [1]
In the present contribution we report the preparation and characterization of the new monomer, its electrochemical polymerization, and the electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical properties of the resulting polymeric layers
The corresponding polymers were obtained by electrochemical polymerization using cyclic voltammetry either under potentiostatic conditions or by the pulse potentiostatic technique
Summary
Low bandgap polymers are promising materials for their possible use in a wide range of applications, in particular as donor p-conducting layers in bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells, wherein they are commonly used in combination with fullerene derivatives such as [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) as acceptor n-conducting materials [1]. In such application, the polymer energy levels need to be finely tuned in order to have efficient BHJ properties. The poly(DEHT-V-BTD) energy levels and the nature of the charge carries formed during the oxidation and the reduction of the layers are discussed in comparison with the poly(2,5-pyridine-Vpyrrole) [9] and poly(2,5-pyridine-V-EDOT) [10]
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