Pyrazine-Flanked Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP): A New Polymer Building Block for High-Performance n-Type Organic Thermoelectrics.

ABSTRACT

n-Doped conjugated polymers usually show low electrical conductivities and low thermoelectric power factors, limiting their applications in n-type organic thermoelectrics. Here, we report the synthesis of a new diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) derivative, pyrazine-flanked DPP (PzDPP), with the deepest LUMO level in all the reported DPP derivatives. Based on PzDPP, a donor-acceptor copolymer, P(PzDPP-CT2), is synthesized. The polymer displays a deep LUMO energy level and strong interchain interaction with a short π-π stacking distance of 3.38 Å. When doped with n-dopant N-DMBI, P(PzDPP-CT2) exhibits high n-type electrical conductivities of up to 8.4 S cm-1 and power factors of up to 57.3 µW m-1 K-2. These values are much higher than previously reported n-doped DPP polymers, and the power factor also ranks the highest in solution-processable n-doped conjugated polymers. These results suggest that PzDPP is a promising high-performance building block for n-type organic thermoelectrics and also highlight that, without sacrificing polymer interchain interactions, efficient n-doping can be realized in conjugated polymers with careful molecular engineering.