Synthesis, characterization and application of meso-substituted fluorinated boron dipyrromethenes (BODIPYs) with different styryl groups in organic photovoltaic cells

Abstract

A series of highly fluorinated BODIPY dyes with different styryl aromatic donor groups such as phenyl, naphthyl and anthracyl were designed, synthesized, characterized and applied as electron-donor materials in organic photovoltaic cells (OPV). The introduction of the styryl moieties leads to a large bathochromic shift and to a significant decrease in the HOMO-LUMO energy-gaps. All the BODIPY dyes showed relatively low HOMO energies ranging from −5.21 to −5.54 eV as determined from cyclic voltammetry measurements. Furthermore, they all show good solubility in organic solvents, thermal stability, excellent film-forming abilities which added with the great optoelectronics characteristics makes them excellent candidates as electron-donor materials for OPV cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the OPV based on the best BODIPY blend (BDP3/PC70BM (1:2, w/w) was 2.8% with a high open circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.00 V, which is a very promising PCE result for BODIPY based OPV and a top VOC value for this kind of systems.