Issue 26, 2015

Utilizing alkoxyphenyl substituents for side-chain engineering of efficient benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-based small molecule organic solar cells

Abstract

A new two-dimensional (2D) conjugated small molecule, namely DCA3TBDTP, with an alkoxyphenyl substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) unit as the central core, octyl cyanoacetate as the end-capped groups and terthiophene as the π-linked bridge, was designed and synthesized for solution-processed organic solar cells (OSCs) as an electron donor material, in which an alkoxyphenyl group was introduced as a weak electron-donating side chain of the BDT moiety. The DCA3TBDTP molecule exhibited good solubility, a deep highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level (−5.25 eV), an appropriate optical band-gap (1.82 eV) and a high decomposition temperature (362 °C). By applying the simple solution spin-coating fabrication process, the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) OSCs based on DCA3TBDTP and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) exhibited a good power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.51% with a high open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.90 V when thermal annealing at only 70 °C.

Graphical abstract: Utilizing alkoxyphenyl substituents for side-chain engineering of efficient benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-based small molecule organic solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 May 2015
Accepted
01 Jun 2015
First published
08 Jun 2015

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015,17, 17391-17398

Author version available

Utilizing alkoxyphenyl substituents for side-chain engineering of efficient benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-based small molecule organic solar cells

Z. Du, W. Chen, M. Qiu, Y. Chen, N. Wang, T. Wang, M. Sun, D. Yu and R. Yang, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 17391 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP02632F

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