Hydrophilic Conjugated Polymers with Large Bandgaps and Deep-Lying HOMO Levels as an Efficient Cathode Interlayer in Inverted Polymer Solar Cells.

Two hydrophilic conjugated polymers, PmP-NOH and PmP36F-NOH, with polar diethanol-amine on the side chains and main chain structures of poly(meta-phenylene) and poly(meta-phenylene-alt-3,6-fluorene), respectively, are successfully synthesized. The films of PmP-NOH and PmP36F-NOH show absorption edges at 340 and 343 nm, respectively. The calculated optical bandgaps of the two polymers are 3.65 and 3.62 eV, respectively, the largest ones so far reported for hydrophilic conjugated polymers. PmP-NOH and PmP36F-NOH also possess deep-lying highest occupied molecular orbital levels of -6.19 and -6.15 eV, respectively. Inserting PmP-NOH and PmP36F-NOH as a cathode interlayer in inverted polymer solar cells with a PTB7/PC71 BM blend as the active layer, high power conversion efficiencies of 8.58% and 8.33%, respectively, are achieved, demonstrating that the two hydrophilic polymers are excellent interlayers for efficient inverted polymer solar cells.

Dithienobenzothiadiazole-based conjugated polymer: processing solvent-relied interchain aggregation and device performances in field-effect transistors and polymer solar cells.

DTfBT-Th(3), a new conjugated polymer based on dithienobenzothiadiazole and terthiophene, possesses a bandgap of ≈1.86 eV and a HOMO level of -5.27 eV. Due to strong interchain aggregation, DTfBT-Th(3) can not be well dissolved in chloro-benzene (CB) and o-dichlorobenzene (DCB) at room temperature (RT), but the polymer can be processed from hot CB and DCB solutions of ≈100 °C. In CB, with a lower solvation ability, a certain polymer chain aggregation can be preserved, even in hot solution. DTfBT-Th(3) displays a field-effect hole mobility of 0.55 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) when fabricated from hot CB solution, which is higher than that of the device processed from hot DCB (0.16 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) In DTfBT-Th(3) -based polymer solar cells, a good power conversion efficiency from 5.37% to 6.67% can be achieved with 150-300 nm thick active layers casted from hot CB solution, while the highest efficiency for hot DCB-processed solar cells is only 5.07%. The results demonstrate that using a solvent with a lower solvation ability, as a "wet control" process, is beneficial to preserve strong interchain aggregation of a conjugated polymer during solution processing, showing great potential to improve its performances in optoelectronic devices.