Citation: Ying Yang, Tong Shan, Jian Cao, Hua-Chun Wang, Ji-Kang Wang, Hong-Liang Zhong, Yun-Xiang Xu. Unsymmetric Side Chains of Indacenodithiophene Copolymers Lead to Improved Packing and Device Performance[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, ;2020, 38(4): 342-348. doi: 10.1007/s10118-020-2342-9 shu

Unsymmetric Side Chains of Indacenodithiophene Copolymers Lead to Improved Packing and Device Performance

Ying Yang ^a,† ,
Tong Shan ^b,† ,
Jian Cao ^a ,
Hua-Chun Wang ^a ,
Ji-Kang Wang ^a ,
Hong-Liang Zhong ^b,, ,
Yun-Xiang Xu ^a,,

a.
College of Polymer Science & Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
b.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Corresponding author: Hong-Liang Zhong, hlzhong@sjtu.edu.cn Yun-Xiang Xu, yxxu@scu.edu.cn
Received Date: 23 July 2019
Revised Date: 20 August 2019
Available Online: 24 October 2019

Two conjugated polymers (PuIDTBD and PuIDTQ) with unsymmetric side chains have been prepared for polymer solar cells using two other polymers (PIDTBD and PIDTQ) with symmetric side chains as control compounds. The combination of methyl and 4-hexylphenyl side chains on the same bridged carbon can ensure good solubility, decrease π-π stacking distances, and bring proper miscibility with PC₇₁BM simultaneously. Therefore, the corresponding polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on donor polymers with unsymmetric side chains exhibited enhanced short-circuit current density (J_SC) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared with those of control polymers. The PIDTBD and PIDTQ based devices possessed low PCE of 2.13% and 1.48%, while PCEs of devices based on PuIDTBD and PuIDTQ were improved to 3.93% and 4.12%, respectively. The results demonstrate that unsymmetric side chain engineering of conjugated polymers is an effective approach to achieve high performance PSCs.
- Polymer solar cell,
- Indacenodithiophene,
- Side-chain engineering,
- Unsymmetric
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