RESUMEN

Harvesting solar energy from sunlight to generate electricity is considered as one of the most important technologies to address the future sustainability of humans. Polymer solar cells (PSCs) have attracted tremendous interest and attention over the past two decades due to their potential advantage to be fabricated onto large area and light-weight flexible substrates by solution processing at a lower cost. PSCs based on the concept of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) configuration where an active layer comprises a composite of a p-type (donor) and an n-type (acceptor) material represents the most useful strategy to maximize the internal donor-acceptor interfacial area allowing for efficient charge separation. Fullerene derivatives such as [6,6]-phenyl-C61 or 71-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) are the ideal n-type materials ubiquitously used for BHJ solar cells. The major effort to develop photoactive materials is numerously focused on the p-type conjugated polymers which are generally synthesized by polymerization of electron-rich donor and electron-deficient acceptor monomers. Compared to the development of electron-deficient comonomers (acceptor segments), the development of electron-rich donor materials is considerably flourishing. Forced planarization by covalently fastening adjacent aromatic and heteroaromatic subunits leads to the formation of ladder-type conjugated structures which are capable of elongating effective conjugation, reducing the optical bandgap, promoting intermolecular π-π interactions and enhancing intrinsic charge mobility. In this review, we will summarize the recent progress on the development of various well-defined new ladder-type conjugated materials. These materials serve as the superb donor monomers to prepare a range of donor-acceptor semi-ladder copolymers with sufficient solution-processability for solar cell applications.

RESUMEN

A copolymerization strategy is developed to utilize porphyrin as a complementary light-harvesting unit (LHU) in D-A polymers. For polymer solar cells (PSCs), the presence of LHUs increases the short-circuit current density (Jsc ) without sacrificing the open-circuit voltage (Voc ) and fill factor (FF). Up to 8.0% power conversion efficiency (PCE) is delivered by PPor-2:PC71 BM single-junction PSCs. A PCE of 8.6% is achieved when a C-PCBSD cathodic interlayer is introduced.

RESUMEN

Two new C60-based n-type materials, EGMC-OH and EGMC-COOH, functionalized with hydrophilic triethylene glycol groups (TEGs), have been synthesized and employed in conventional polymer solar cells. With the assistance of the TEG-based surfactant, EGMC-OH and EGMC-COOH can be dissolved in highly polar solvents to implement the polar/nonpolar orthogonal solvent strategy, forming an electron modification layer (EML) without eroding the underlying active layer. Multilayer conventional solar cells on the basis of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT:PC61BM/EML/Ca/Al configuration with the insertion of the EGMC-OH and EGMC-COOH EML between the active layer and the electrode have thus been successfully realized by cost-effective solution processing techniques. Moreover, the electron conductivity of the EML can be improved by incorporating alkali carbonates into the EGMC-COOH EML. Compared to the pristine device with a PCE of 3.61%, the devices modified by the Li2CO3-doped EGMC-COOH EML achieved a highest PCE of 4.29%. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the formation of the EGMC-COOH EML can be utilized as a general approach in the fabrication of highly efficient multilayer conventional devices. With the incorporation of the EGMC-COOH doped with 40 wt % Li2CO3, the PCDCTBT-C8:PC71BM-based device exhibited a superior PCE of 4.51%, which outperformed the corresponding nonmodified device with a PCE of 3.63%.

RESUMEN

A high organic field-effect transistor mobility (0.29 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) ) and bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cell performance (PCE of 6.82%) have been achieved in a low bandgap alternating copolymer consisting of axisymmetrical structural units, 5,6-difluorobenzo-2,1,3-thiadiazole. Introducing the fluorine substituents enhanced intermolecular interaction and improved the solid-state order, which consequently resulted in the highest device performances among the 2,1,3-thiadiazole-quarterthiophene based alternating copolymers.

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RESUMEN

A pentacyclic benzodipyrrolothiophene (BDPT) unit, in which two outer thiophene rings are covalently fastened with the central phenylene ring by nitrogen bridges, was synthesized. The two pyrrole units embedded in BDPT were constructed by using one-pot palladium-catalyzed amination. The coplanar stannylated Sn-BDPT building block was copolymerized with electron-deficient thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD), benzothiadiazole (BT), and dithienyl-diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) acceptors by Stille polymerization. The bridging nitrogen atoms make the BDPT motif highly electron-abundant and structurally coplanar, which allows for tailoring the optical and electronic properties of the resultant polymers. Strong photoinduced charge-transfer with significant band-broadening in the solid state and relatively higher oxidation potential are characteristic of the BDPT-based polymers. Poly(benzodipyrrolothiophene-alt-benzothiadiazole) (PBDPTBT) achieved the highest field-effect hole mobility of up to 0.02 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). The photovoltaic device using the PBDPTBT/PC(71)BM blend (1:3, w/w) exhibited a V(oc) of 0.6 V, a J(sc) of 10.34 mA cm(-2), and a FF of 50%, leading to a decent PCE of 3.08%. Encouragingly, the device incorporating poly(benzodipyrrolothiophene-alt-thienopyrrolodione) (PBDPTTPD)/PC(71)BM (1:3, w/w) composite delivered a highest PCE of 3.72%. The enhanced performance arises from the lower-lying HOMO value of PBDPTTPD to yield a higher V(oc) of 0.72 V.

RESUMEN

A flexible solar device showing exceptional air and mechanical stability is produced by simultaneously optimizing molecular structure, active layer morphology, and interface characteristics. The PFDCTBT-C8-based devices with inverted architecture exhibited excellent power conversion efficiencies of 7.0% and 6.0% on glass and flexible substrates, respectively.

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RESUMEN

We report here two novel 2,7-fluorene- and 2,7-carbazole-based conjugated polymers PFDCTBT and PCDCTBT containing ladder-type heptacyclic structures with forced planarity. PCDTBT shows excellent solubility, low band gap and high hole mobility, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 3.7%.

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