Conjugated polymers with polyoxometalate (POM) clusters embedded in the main chain are appealing donor-acceptor hybrid polymers for photovoltaic applications. We have previously shown that a POM-embedded poly(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) hybrid polymer can be used to fabricate simple single-layer solar cells with efficiencies up to 0.15%. Such an efficiency is very encouraging considering the facts that PPE has very limited absorption in the visible range (lmax~ 450 nm) and has relatively poor charge transporting properties. Polythiophenes, on the other hand, exhibit much broader absorption wavelength range and much higher hole mobility. It is thus intriguing to see whether POM-embedded polythiophene-based main-chain conjugated polymers may show improved solar cell performances. This contribution reports the synthesis and optical properties of the first two polythiophene-based POM-containing main-chain conjugated polymers. It is shown that such polymers exhibit solution absorption even beyond 750 nm, indicating their potential as better photovoltaic hybrid materials.

New polythiophene-based main-chain polyoxometalate-containing conjugated polymers

248th National Meeting (2014)

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