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Insight into the synthesis and fabrication of 5,6-alt-benzothiadiazole-based D–π–A-conjugated copolymers for bulk-heterojunction solar cell

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Herein, two new 5,6-alt-benzothiadiazole-based Poly(o-arylene–vinylene) (POAV) type of D–π–A-conjugated copolymers, namely P1 and P2, have been synthesized using Horner–Wittig reaction and characterized by UV–Vis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and CV. With a deeper HOMO level of ≈ 5.95 eV, these two polymers have been used as donor with [6, 6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester, PC61BM as an acceptor to fabricate solar cells with a device structure ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P1orP2-PCBM/Al or Ca:Al. Without annealing or use of additives, maximum V oc of 0.68, fill factor of 30.2%, quantum efficiency of 22%, and maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.76% have been achieved with P2. Morphology of blended active layer, P1/P2 with PC61BM and PC71BM, has been investigated using AFM images.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Department of Science and Technology, India (No. SR/S1/PC-02/2009, DST/TSG/PT/2009/11 and DST/TSG/PT/2009/23) and IGSTC/MPG/PG(PKI)/2011A/48. Radhakrishna Ratha thanks UGC-India for financial support. The Central Instruments Facility, IIT Guwahati, is acknowledged for instrument facility. Funding was provided by Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Grant No. 5(9)/2012-NANO (Vol. II))

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  1. Centre for Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    Radhakrishna Ratha, Ashish Singh & Parameswar Krishnan Iyer

  2. Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, 781039, Assam, India

    T. Bhim Raju & Parameswar Krishnan Iyer

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  1. Radhakrishna Ratha
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Ratha, R., Singh, A., Raju, T.B. et al. Insight into the synthesis and fabrication of 5,6-alt-benzothiadiazole-based D–π–A-conjugated copolymers for bulk-heterojunction solar cell. Polym. Bull. 75, 2933–2951 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-017-2193-x

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