Effect of chalcogen atom substitution on the optoelectronic properties in cyclopentadithiophene polymers

Miquel Planells*, Bob C. Schroeder, Iain McCulloch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

76 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the synthesis and characterization of a series of cyclopentadithiophene polymers containing thiophene, selenophene, and tellurophene as comonomers. The effect of the chalcogen atom has been studied by a range of techniques, including thermal, optical, electrochemical, and computational. The results showed that by increasing the size of the chalcogen atom, the optical band gap is reduced mainly due to a downshift in the LUMO energy level. In addition, the larger size also increases the intermolecular heteroatom-heteroatom interactions facilitating the formation of polymer aggregates. This led to not only a stronger red-shifted band in the UV-vis absorption spectrum as well as raise in the HOMO energy level but also a potential solubility issue for higher molecular weight polymers containing particularly tellurophene units.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5889-5894
Number of pages6
JournalMacromolecules
Volume47
Issue number17
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 9 2014
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Published 2014 by the American Chemical Society.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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