A Simple, Small-Bandgap Porphyrin-Based Conjugated Polymer for Application in Organic Electronics.

A simple, small-bandgap porphyrin-based conjugated polymer with ethylnyl linkers is prepared for application in organic electronics. Beneficial from quinoid resonance form, the polymer showed near-infrared absorption up to 1000 nm and strong photoluminescence emission with a quantum yield of 0.2%. The polymer can be successfully applied to several electronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors with ambipolar charge transport, organic solar cells with a high external quantum efficiency of 0.58 at 970 nm, and organic photodetectors with high responsibility and detectivity.

Evaluation of different potassium salts as activators for hierarchically porous carbons and their applications in CO2 adsorption.

KOH is one of the most widely used activators for the synthesis of highly porous carbon. However, the strong causticity of KOH could cause serious equipment damage and safety issues at high temperature. In the current work, we presented the synthesis of porous carbons with large surface area using four different potassium salts (CH3COOK, KHCO3, K2CO3, and K2C2O4·H2O) as mild but effective activators. Hydrochar prepared from the hydrothermal carbonization of glucosamine hydrochloride was used as carbon precursor. The carbons exhibited specific surface area up to 2403 m2/g. In order to reveal the different influences of nitrogen doping and textural properties under low and high pressure conditions, CO2 adsorption was tested with pressure up to 20 bar. At 1 bar, ultramicropore was the most determinant factor. Nitrogen doping also showed important influences, especially on the CO2/N2 selectivity. At 20 bar, the carbon activated by KHCO3 showed CO2 uptakes of 26.24 (0 °C) and 18.63 mmol/g (25 °C). The experiment results indicated that the uptake at 20 bar correlated with the total surface area and total porosity of the carbon, and no apparent effects from nitrogen doping were observed.

Thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione-based conjugated polymers for organic solar cells.

Conjugated polymers consisting of electron-rich and electron-deficient units as alternative structures have played important roles in the field of organic solar cells (OSCs). A thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) unit as an electron-deficient unit has been used to construct conjugated polymers for application in fullerene and non-fullerene based OSCs. TPD-based monomers can be simply prepared and TPD-polymers can be synthesized via environmentally friendly direct (hetero)arylation polymerization, providing a possibility for large quantity preparation. TPD-polymers usually have deep frontier energy levels, wide band gaps with absorption onset around 700 nm and good charge transport properties, showing the advantages of high open-circuit voltage, high fill-factor and excellent spectral matching with a small band gap non-fullerene acceptor. From the material design and synthesis and their optoelectrical properties, TPD-polymers have great potential applications in OSCs toward large-area devices. In this review, we provide an overview of TPD-polymers for OSCs in the last ten years, including the design and synthesis of TPD-polymers, and their application in fullerene and non-fullerene OSCs. We will also provide some perspective about the research of TPD-polymers that meet the requirement of OSCs. We hope that our universal summary can stimulate the study of TPD-polymers in the future, especially toward high performance, low cost and stable OSCs.