1. Faculty of Chemistry, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China;2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Abstract:
Four conjugated D‐π‐A copolymers, P1 – P4 , based on 11,12‐difluorodibenzoa,c]phenazine as an acceptor unit, benzodithiophene (BDT) with an alkoxy side chain ( P1 and P2 ) or thiophene‐conjugated side chain ( P3 and P4 ) as a donor unit, and thiophene π‐bridges, are designed and synthesized to investigate the effect of the side‐chain nature and position on the photovoltaic performance of the conjugated polymer donor materials in polymer solar cells (PSCs). It is found that the copolymers of P3 and P4 with thiophene conjugated side chains on the BDT unit demonstrate broader absorption and better photovoltaic performance than that of P1 and P2 with alkoxy side chains on the BDT unit. The photovoltaic performance of P1 and P3 with an alkyl side chain on the thiophene π‐bridge close to the acceptor unit is improved over that of P2 and P4 with an alkyl side chain on the thiophene π‐bridge close to the donor unit, due to the lower steric hindrance of P1 and P3 . The results indicate that side‐chain engineering is very important for improving the photovoltaic performance of conjugated polymer donor materials.
