Abstract
Calculations predict energy levels of polymers for OPV, and time-resolved microwave conductivity pre-screens for charge generation ability prior to device fabrication.
Highlights
Solution processed organic photovoltaics (OPV) provide an attractive approach for the conversion of solar energy to electricity, with high power conversion efficiencies up to 11% recently achieved in single-junction devices
In this paper we present an integrated approach toward new narrow bandgap copolymers that uses theory to guide the selection of materials to be synthesized based on their predicted energy levels, and time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) to select the best-performing copolymer–fullerene bulk heterojunction to be incorporated into complete Organic Photovoltaics (OPV) devices
We present and validate a methodology for designing copolymer donors for OPV that uses theory to select materials that can lead to high efficiencies, and TRMC to select the best-performing materials for device optimization
Summary
Solution processed organic photovoltaics (OPV) provide an attractive approach for the conversion of solar energy to electricity, with high power conversion efficiencies up to 11% (ref. 1–6) recently achieved in single-junction devices. We recently reported on this methodology as a strategy to dramatically accelerate the materials development process for OPV polymers, focusing on a new class of push–pull copolymers based on a cyclopenta[c]thiophene-4,6-dione (CTD) electron withdrawing unit, shown in Fig. 1.20 Our approach comprised the following steps: (i) quantum chemical calculations were used to test suitable functionalization of the CTD electron withdrawing unit and appropriate electron donating units to predict push–pull copolymers with desired optoelectronic properties (optical bandgap and ionization energy); (ii) target polymers based on chemical intuition and guidance from the aforementioned calculations were synthesized; (iii) the contactless Flash-Photolysis Time-Resolved Microwave Conductivity (TRMC) method was used to determine the ability of the polymer to generate long-lived (ns time scales) free charge carriers under illumination in a bulk heterojunction thin lm; and (iv) fabrication and optimization of OPV devices was carried out.
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