Alkyl-thiophene-alkyl linkers to construct double-cable conjugated polymers for single-component organic solar cells

Wenbin Lai, Safakath Karuthedath, Chengyi Xiao*, Lei Meng, Frédéric Laquai, Weiwei Li, Yongfang Li

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this work, semirigid linkers of the alkyl-thiophene-alkyl structure are developed to construct double-cable polymers. Three alkyl units, propyl (C3H6), hexyl (C6H12), and dodecyl (C12H24), are applied as semirigid linkers, yielding three double-cable polymers: PBC6-T, PBC12-T, and PBC24-T, respectively. PBC12-T which uses C6H12-thiophene-C6H12 linkers is found to exhibit the best device efficiency of 5.56%, while PBC6-T and PBC24-T with shorter or longer linkers yield device efficiencies of only 2.65% and 1.09% in single-component organic solar cells (SCOSCs). Further studies reveal that PBC12-T exhibits higher crystallinity and improved charge transport, resulting in better efficiencies. Our work provides an approach to construct double-cable conjugated polymers with long alkyl linkers, and it shows the importance of the linker length for the photovoltaic performance of SCOSCs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number108287
JournalChinese Chemical Letters
Volume35
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023

Keywords

  • Alkyl-thiophene-alkyl
  • Double-cable conjugated polymer
  • Semirigid linkers
  • Single-component organic solar cellCrystallinity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry

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