TY - JOUR
T1 - Side-Chain Substituents on Benzotriazole-Based Polymer Acceptors Affecting the Performance of All-Polymer Solar Cells
AU - Fu, Huiting
AU - Li, Yuxiang
AU - Wu, Ziang
AU - Lin, Francis R.
AU - Woo, Han Young
AU - Jen, Alex K.Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
A.K.Y.J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau-Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science), and the support from the APRC Grant of the City University of Hong Kong (9380086), Innovation and Technology Fund (ITS/497/18FP, GHP/021/18SZ), the US Office of Naval Research (N00014-20-1-2191), the GRF grant (11307621) and the CRF grant (C6023-19GF) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302007), Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials (2019B121205002). Y.L. acknowledges the support from the Hong Kong Scholars Program (XJ2019-026), the Science and Technology Program of Shanxi Province (2019JQ-244), and the Outstanding Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Xi'an University of Science and Technology (2019YQ3-03). H.Y.W. is thankful for the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2016M1A2A2940911, 2020M3H4A3081814).
Funding Information:
A.K.Y.J. thanks the sponsorship of the Lee Shau‐Kee Chair Professor (Materials Science), and the support from the APRC Grant of the City University of Hong Kong (9380086), Innovation and Technology Fund (ITS/497/18FP, GHP/021/18SZ), the US Office of Naval Research (N00014‐20‐1‐2191), the GRF grant (11307621) and the CRF grant (C6023‐19GF) from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302007), Guangdong‐Hong Kong‐Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials (2019B121205002). Y.L. acknowledges the support from the Hong Kong Scholars Program (XJ2019‐026), the Science and Technology Program of Shanxi Province (2019JQ‐244), and the Outstanding Youth Science and Technology Foundation of Xi'an University of Science and Technology (2019YQ3‐03). H.Y.W. is thankful for the financial support from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea (2016M1A2A2940911, 2020M3H4A3081814).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Recently, the strategy of polymerized small-molecule acceptors (PSMAs) has attracted extensive attention for applications in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Although side-chain engineering is considered as a simple and effective strategy for manipulating polymer properties, the corresponding effect on photovoltaic performance of PSMAs in all-PSCs has not been systemically investigated. Herein, a series of PSMAs based on the benzotriazole (BTz)-core fused SMAs with different N-alkyl chains including branched 2-butyloctyl, linear n-octyl, and methyl on the BTz unit, namely PZT-C12, PZT-C8, and PZT-C1, respectively, is presented. Comparative studies show that the size of alkyl chains has a significant impact on the solid-state behavior of PZT polymers, which in turn affects their light absorption and charge transporting capacities, and subsequently the all-PSC performances. When combining with the polymer donor PBDB-T, PZT-C1 affords a champion power conversion efficiency of 14.9%, compared to 13.1% of PZT-C12, and 13.8% of PZT-C8 in the resultant all-PSCs, mainly benefiting from its better crystallinity and the more favorable blend morphology. This work emphasizes the importance of optimizing side-chain substituents on PSMAs for improving the device efficiency of all-PSCs.
AB - Recently, the strategy of polymerized small-molecule acceptors (PSMAs) has attracted extensive attention for applications in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Although side-chain engineering is considered as a simple and effective strategy for manipulating polymer properties, the corresponding effect on photovoltaic performance of PSMAs in all-PSCs has not been systemically investigated. Herein, a series of PSMAs based on the benzotriazole (BTz)-core fused SMAs with different N-alkyl chains including branched 2-butyloctyl, linear n-octyl, and methyl on the BTz unit, namely PZT-C12, PZT-C8, and PZT-C1, respectively, is presented. Comparative studies show that the size of alkyl chains has a significant impact on the solid-state behavior of PZT polymers, which in turn affects their light absorption and charge transporting capacities, and subsequently the all-PSC performances. When combining with the polymer donor PBDB-T, PZT-C1 affords a champion power conversion efficiency of 14.9%, compared to 13.1% of PZT-C12, and 13.8% of PZT-C8 in the resultant all-PSCs, mainly benefiting from its better crystallinity and the more favorable blend morphology. This work emphasizes the importance of optimizing side-chain substituents on PSMAs for improving the device efficiency of all-PSCs.
KW - alkyl chains
KW - all-polymer solar cells
KW - crystallinity
KW - polymer acceptors
KW - power conversion efficiencies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127378888&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/marc.202200062
DO - 10.1002/marc.202200062
M3 - Article
C2 - 35318766
AN - SCOPUS:85127378888
SN - 1022-1336
VL - 43
JO - Macromolecular Rapid Communications
JF - Macromolecular Rapid Communications
IS - 16
M1 - 2200062
ER -
