Recently a variety of polymers that absorb more light by fine-tuning energy levels in the polymer to better match their bandgaps with the solar spectrum have been reported.  Many of the systems with high power conversion efficiencies (PCE) utilize derivatives of dialkoxy substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) monomers.  We have developed dithioalkoxy derivatives of this ring system (S-BDT) that when used either in homopolymers or in low bandgap D-A copolymers, lowers the HOMO level with respect to the LUMO of acceptors such as PCBM and leads to open circuit voltages (Voc) > 1.0V and PCE of ~4% in bulk heterojunction solar cells (BHSC). We will discuss the design and synthesis of these (co)polymers and their performance in BHSCs.

Novel dialkylthiobenzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene derivatives for high open circuit polymer solar cells

247th National Meeting (2014)

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