p-Type Conjugated Polymers Containing Electron-Deficient Pentacyclic Azepinedione

Qiao He, Jessica Shaw, Yuliar Firdaus, Xiantao Hu, Bowen Ding, Adam V. Marsh, Alexandre S. Dumon, Yang Han, Zhuping Fei, Thomas D. Anthopoulos, Christopher R. McNeill, Martin Heeney*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Bisthienoazepinedione (BTA) has been reported for constructing high-performing p-type conjugated polymers in organic electronics, but the ring extended version of BTA is not well explored. In this work, we report a new synthesis of a key building block to the ring expanded electron-deficient pentacyclic azepinedione (BTTA). Three copolymers of BTAA with benzodithiophene substituted by different side chains are prepared. These polymers exhibit similar energy levels and optical absorption in solution and solid state, while significant differences are revealed in their film morphologies and behavior in transistor and photovoltaic devices. The best-performing polymers in transistor devices contained alkylthienyl side chains on the BDT unit (pBDT-BTTA-2 and pBDT-BTTA-3) and demonstrated maximum saturation hole mobilities of 0.027 and 0.017 cm2 V-1 s-1. Blends of these polymers with PC71BM exhibited a best photovoltaic efficiency of 6.78% for pBDT-BTTA-3-based devices. Changing to a low band gap non-fullerene acceptor (BTP-eC9) resulted in improved efficiency of up to 13.5%. Our results are among the best device performances for BTA and BTTA-based p-type polymers and highlight the versatile applications of this electron-deficient BTTA unit.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5825-5834
Number of pages10
JournalMacromolecules
Volume56
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 8 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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

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