This work focuses on the incorporation of both fluorinated polymer donors and perfluoroalkylated fullerene acceptors with better intrinsic oxidative stability into organic photovoltaic active layers. The role of the electron affinity of the fullerene towards inhibiting photooxidation of the polymers will be discussed. An investigation of the photodegradation of a variety of unencapsulated polymer:fullerene blends exposed to ambient conditions will be presented. We observe, for instance, that the rate of irreversible photobleaching of a conjugated polymer based on thienopyrrolodione and benzodithiophene (P-TPD-BDT, currently the most photostable high performance OPV polymer known in the literature) can be improved by a factor of three over the current state-of-the-art when the traditional PC60BM fullerene is substitued with a fluorinated “faux hawk” fullerene. Strategies and results will also be presented for improving the intimate mixing of traditional OPV donor polymers with other perfluoroalkylated fullerenes that have strong electron affinities, including C60(CF3)2 and C60(i-C3F7)2. These strategies include the use of fluorinated block copolymer additives and the fluorination of donor polymer side chains.

Perfluoroalkylated fullerenes for stabilizing organic photovoltaic active layers

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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