Crystalline–Crystalline Donor–Acceptor Block Copolymers

Sommer, Michael; Lang, Andreas; Thelakkat, Mukundan

doi:10.1002/ange.200802725

Cited by 34 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Previous work on molecular donor-acceptor materials produced only modest power conversion efficiencies, a result attributed to a loss of charge carriers to recombination within the overly small domains. 16 Although there has been extensive work on block copolymers (BCPs) that employ pendant chromophores on a nonconjugated backbone, [17][18][19][20][21] to maximize chromophore density, the polymers should be fully conjugated. For these reasons, fully conjugated BCPs are the subject of this investigation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The synthesis and purification of amphiphilic conjugated donor–acceptor block copolymers

Mitchell

Wong

Thelakkat

et al. 2016

Polym J

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Nanoscale domains of donor and acceptor materials are crucial for charge generation in organic photovoltaic devices. These domains are difficult to achieve reproducibly in blended materials, but could be engineered into single-material active layers composed of donor-acceptor block copolymers (BCPs). In this work, we report the synthesis and purification of two novel fully conjugated BCPs, P3HT-b-PF TEG TBT and P3HT-b-PF TEG T6BT. To enhance phase separation and self-assembly, these two polymers incorporate tetraethylene glycol side chains into the PFTBT acceptor block, generating an amphiphilic system. The chemical disparity of the donor and acceptor blocks allowed the development of a purification strategy capable of isolating the desired BCP from homopolymer contaminants. This is a significant improvement over previous systems in which homopolymer contaminants can dominate the reaction mixture, affecting performance and morphology. We show that preliminary morphological analysis indicates spontaneous phase separation in thin films, demonstrating the efficacy of this design strategy and the potential application of these materials in organic photovoltaic devices.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The synthesis and purification of amphiphilic conjugated donor–acceptor block copolymers

Mitchell

Wong

Thelakkat

et al. 2016

Polym J

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“…The desire for morphology control has led to the exploration of new materials (for example, cross-linkable materials [13] and block-copolymers [14][15][16]), and the rise of various processing techniques (thermal and solvent annealing [4,17,18], solvent additives [19][20][21][22][23], and changing parameters such as solvent, polymer:fullerene ratio, and solution concentration [24][25][26]). The importance of solvent in the BHJ morphology has been long established [11,5,27].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlating dilute solvent interactions to morphology and OPV device performance

Chang

Jacobs

Augustine

et al. 2013

Organic Electronics

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a b s t r a c tSolvent additives have been explored as a reliable way to control the morphology in bulkheterojunction (BHJ) layers for improved device performance. We show that the choice of solvent additives has direct implications on morphological evolution, i.e. poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT): [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) BHJ films processed with a small amount of 1,8-diiodooctane or 1-chloronaphthalene have more crystalline PCBM domains compared to crystalline P3HT domains, while the opposite is true for films cast with nitrobenzene additive and films cast purely from chlorobenzene. The BHJ film cross-links when annealed at 300°C in the presence of 1,8-diiodooctane. Cross-linking is found to occur even in pristine P3HT and PCBM films annealed under similar conditions. NMR spectroscopy is presented as a viable technique for quantitative analysis of the amount of solvents left in the BHJ films before and after heat treatment. Despite differences in the ways the additives affect the morphology of the BHJ layer, device performance remained stable over 300 h for all additives tested.

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“…Several attempts have been carried out in order to obtain ideal morphology and high device performance. For example, poly(3-alkylthiophene) based block copolymers containing a polyacrylate block with perylene bisimide pendant groups were investigated [12,13]. However conversion efficiencies were still lower than that of the conventional P3HT/PCBM composite indicating that further investigations, including molecular design and process for film fabrication, are required for improving performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(3-hexylthiophene)-b-Polystyrene for Photovoltaic Application

Tan

Tsuchiya

et al. 2011

Polymers

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Poly(3-hexylthiophene)-block-polystyrene (P3HT-b-PS) was synthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction between P3HT and PS, prepared by Grignard metathesis polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), respectively. The formation of block copolymer was confirmed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and NMR. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermogram of block copolymers showed glass transition of PS block and melting/crystallization of P3HT block, suggesting a microphase separated structure, which was also confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) images and UV-vis absorption spectra. The annealing effect on the morphology of the composite films consisting of 6]-phenyl-C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was investigated. Photovoltaic cells fabricated using P3HT-b-PS and PCBM were evaluated.

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Crystalline–Crystalline Donor–Acceptor Block Copolymers

Cited by 34 publications

References 30 publications

The synthesis and purification of amphiphilic conjugated donor–acceptor block copolymers

The synthesis and purification of amphiphilic conjugated donor–acceptor block copolymers

Correlating dilute solvent interactions to morphology and OPV device performance

Synthesis and Characterization of Poly(3-hexylthiophene)-b-Polystyrene for Photovoltaic Application

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