Selenophene-Incorporated Quaterchalcogenophene-Based Donor-Acceptor Copolymers To Achieve Efficient Solar Cells with J(sc) Exceeding 20 mA/cm(2)

Abstract

Three selenophene-incorporated quaterchalcogenophene-based donoracceptor copolymers PFBT2Th2Se, PFBT2Se2Th, and PFBT4Se are designed and synthesized. To systematically fine-tune the molecular properties and investigate the chalcogen effect, PFBT2Th2Se and PFBT2Se2Th hybridize two thiophenes and two selenophenes as the donor with different isomeric main-chain placement while thiophene-free PFBT4Se uses quaterselenophene as the donor. On account of the selenophenes advantageous features such as higher quinoidal population and higher molecular polarizability, the three polymers show good light-harvesting ability, strong intermolecular interactions, high crystallinity, and high charge mobilities. Bulk-heterojunction solar cells incorporating these selenophene-containing polymers have exhibited promising photovoltaic performance with impressive current densities over 20 mA/cm(2). The device with the PFBT2Se2Th:PC71BM blend showed a PCE of 9.02% with a J(sc) of 21.02 mA/cm(2). In addition, the device using quaterselenophene-based PFBT4Se:PC71BM blend exhibited a PCE of 8.92% with a superior J(sc) of 22.63 mA/cm(2) which represents one of the highest current densities from polymer:fullerene-based solar cells reported in the literature.