A-Unit with Alkyl-Chlorothiophene Substituents for Polymer Solar Cells

Can Zhu, Ke Hu, Lei Meng, Xiaolei Kong, Wenbin Lai, Shucheng Qin, Beibei Qiu, Jinyuan Zhang, Zhanjun Zhang, Yilei Wu, Xiaojun Li, and Yongfang Li

CCS Chem. Jan 4, 2023,

DOI: 10.31635/ccschem.022.202202491

Researchers have developed a new D-A copolymer donor, PBQ9, which is based on difluoroquinoxaline A-unit with chlorine substitution on its alkyl-thiophene side chains instead of fluorine substitution. Chlorine substitution is less complicated and less costly than fluorine substitution.

The optimized binary polymer solar cell (PSC) using PBQ9 as the polymer donor and m-TEH as the acceptor showed a high power conversion efficiency of 18.81%, with a high fill factor of 80.59%, and the photovoltaic performance was insensitive to different batches of the polymer donor. The results indicate that PBQ9 is a high-performance polymer donor, and chlorine substitution is an effective strategy to improve the photovoltaic performance and reduce the cost of polymer donors.

Photo-CELIV and TPC measurements:were obtained by the all-in-one characterization platform, Paios.