In the past two decades, the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaic cells, arguably one of the hottest research fields, has attracted tremendous amount of research efforts.  Impressive progress has been made through synergistic efforts of chemists, physicists, and engineers.  For example, the efficiency has reached 8 � 10% recently, largely through the engineering the conjugated backbone of these polymers to reach ideal energy levels and band gaps.However, side chains and fluorine substituents on conjugated polymers have shown significant impacts on the photovoltaic properties these polymers based devices. We comprehensively investigate a series of conjugated polymers with an identical backbone but different combinations of side chains and F substituents, aiming to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms that govern the impacts of the side chains and F substitutions.References:(1) �Fluorine Substituents Reduce Charge Recombination and Drive Structure and Morphology Development in Polymer Solar Cells.� Andrew C. Stuart, John R. Tumbleston, Huaxing Zhou, Wentao Li, Shubin Liu, Harald Ade, and Wei You* . J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013 , 135, 1806-1815.(2) �Disentangling the impact of side chains and fluorine substituents of conjugated donor polymers on the performance of photovoltaic blends.� Liqiang Yang, John R. Tumbleston, Huaxing Zhou, Harald Ade, and Wei You*  Energy Environ. Sci. 2013 , 6, 316-326.

Conjugated polymers for bulk heterojunction solar cells: The impact of side chains and fluorine

247th National Meeting (2014)

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