Wide-Bandgap Conjugated Polymers Based on Alkylthiofuran-Substituted Benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]difuran for Efficient Fullerene-Free Polymer Solar Cells

Abstract

The alkythiofuran-based benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]difuran (BDFS) unit presents the planar and rigid structure with favorable inter/intramolecular interactions and is expected to be a promising building block to construct the highly efficient photovoltaic polymers. Herein, we reported two novel wide-bandgap conjugated polymers, PBDFS-Bz and PBDFS-fBz, which were based on BDFS and benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (Bz) units, and investigated their photovoltaic performances in fullerene-free polymer solar cells (PSCs). PBDFS-Bz and PBDFS-fBz show similar optical properties with the wide bandgaps of ∼1.88 eV. The HOMO energy level of PBDFS-Bz is at −5.30 eV, whereas it is downshifted to −5.45 eV for PBDFS-fBz due to the strong electron-withdrawing fluorine substitutes. The optimized fullerene-free PSC based on PBDFS-Bz:ITIC achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.07% with a Voc of 0.82 V, a Jsc of 15.14 mA cm–2, and a FF of 65%. Under the same conditions, PBDFS-fBz:ITIC device won a promising PCE of 9.00% with an e...