Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.135, No.45, 17060-17068, 2013
Fluorinated Benzothiadiazole-Based Conjugated Polymers for High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells without Any Processing Additives or Post-treatments
Thanks to their many favorable advantages, polymer solar cells exhibit great potential for next-generation clean energy sources. Herein, we have successfully designed and synthesized a series of new fluorinated benzothiadiazole-based conjugated copolymers PBDTTEH-DT(H)BTff (P1), PBDTTEH-DT(EH)BTff (P2), and PBDTHDO-DT(H)BTff (P3). The power conversion efficiencies of 4.46, 6.20, and 8.30% were achieved for P1-, P2-, and P3-based devices within similar to 100 nm thickness active layers under AM 1.5G illumination without any processing additives or post-treatments, respectively. The PCE of 8.30% for P3 is the highest value for the reported traditional single-junction polymer solar cells via a simple fabrication architecture without any additives or post-treatments. In addition, it is noteworthy that P3 also allows making high efficient polymer solar cells with high PCEs of 7.27 and 6.56% under the same condition for similar to 200 and similar to 300 nm thickness active layers, respectively. Excellent photoelectric properties and good solubility make polymer P3 become an alternative material for high-performance polymer solar cells.