A rapidly increasing global energy demand coupled with finite fossil fuel resources necessitates the development of alternative energy sources. Polymer photovoltaics are among the most promising alternatives because cost-effective solution processing techniques can be employed to prepare flexible large-area devices. Maximizing the efficiency of these multi-component devices requires understanding and optimizing the performance of the highly conjugated polymer constituent. Thus, a variety of low band gap polymers based on the poly(2,5-thienylene vinylene) (PTV) scaffold were prepared by acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization. Ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts have astounding functional group tolerance and thus provide the synthetic versatility necessary for tailoring PTV molecular structure and corresponding properties. Photovoltaic device performance typically improves with increasing polymer chain length. This correlation was evaluated with a series of variable molecular weight PTVs. Building on the synthetic versatility of metathesis; statistical copolymerization of structurally diverse PTV monomers was also explored.

Metathesis route to light harvesting polymers with tunable molecular weights and compositions

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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