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  • Morphology Driven by Molecular Structure of Thiazole-Based Polymers for Use in Field-Effect Transistors and Solar Cells.

Morphology Driven by Molecular Structure of Thiazole-Based Polymers for Use in Field-Effect Transistors and Solar Cells.

Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) (2018-11-06)
Jisu Hong, Canjie Wang, Hyojung Cha, Hyung Nam Kim, Yebyeol Kim, Chan Eon Park, Tae Kyu An, Soon-Ki Kwon, Yun-Hi Kim
ABSTRACT

The effects of the molecular structure of thiazole-based polymers on the active layer morphologies and performances of electronic and photovoltaic devices were studied. Thus, thiazole-based conjugated polymers with a novel thiazole-vinylene-thiazole (TzVTz) structure were designed and synthesized. The TzVTz structure was introduced to extend the π conjugation and coplanarity of the polymer chains. By combining alkylthienyl-substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (BDT) or dithieno[2,3-d:2',3'-d']benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (DTBDT) electron-donating units and a TzVTz electron-accepting unit, enhanced intermolecular interactions and charge transport were obtained in the novel polymers BDT-TzVTz and DTBDT-TzVTz. With a view to using the polymers in transistor and photovoltaic applications, the molecular self-assembly in and their nanoscale morphologies of the active layers were controlled by thermal annealing to enhance the molecular packing and by introducing a diphenyl ether solvent additive to improve the miscibility between polymer donors and [6,6]phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71 BM) acceptors, respectively. The morphological characterization of the photoactive layers showed that a higher degree of π-electron delocalization and more favorable molecular packing in DTBDT-TzVTz compared with in BDT-TzVTz leads to distinctly higher performances in transistor and photovoltaic devices. The superior performance of a photovoltaic device incorporating DTBDT-TzVTz was achieved through the superior miscibility of DTBDT-TzVTz with PC71 BM and the improved crystallinity of DTBDT-TzVTz in the nanofibrillar structure.

MATERIALS
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Sigma-Aldrich
1,2-Dichloroethylene, mixture of cis and trans, 98%
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