Modular Synthesis and Structure Analysis of P3HT-b-PPBI Donor–Acceptor Diblock Copolymers

Abstract

While donor–acceptor block copolymers (BCPs) are widely discussed to be optimal model materials for studying the morphology-dependent processes in organic photovoltaics, the observation of the desired microphase-separated structures is rare. We present a novel modular approach for the synthesis of donor–acceptor block copolymers offering a fast and flexible way for chemical modifications leading to microphase separation accompanied by confined crystallization of the individual blocks. Two donor–acceptor BCPs of poly(3-hexylthiophene)-b-polyperylene bisimide (P3HT-b-PPBI 1 and 2) were synthesized incorporating P3HT as a donor and a polystyrene with two different pendant perylene bisimides (PBI-N3 1 and 2) as acceptor blocks to show the flexibility of the synthetic approach. The synthesis combines Kumada catalyst transfer polymerization (KCTP), controlled radical polymerization, and click chemistry to obtain highly comparable polymers via a modular approach. We synthesized poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with...