Three soluble alternating conjugated copolymers PT-TZN, PF-TZN, and PBDT-TZN, composed of thiophene, fluorene, benzo[1,2-b: 4,5-b'] dithiophene and thiophene derivatives with 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazole side chains, were synthesized via the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction and Stille coupling reaction. The effects of 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazole on the thermal, photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties were investigated. The introduction of the 3-nitro-1,2,4-triazole side chains is beneficial for lowering the bandgaps of the polymers. The bulk-heterojunction polymer solar cells were fabricated based on the blend of the as-synthesized polymers and the fullerene acceptor [6, 6]-phenyl-C-61-butyric acid methyl ester. The maximum power conversion efficiency (1.13%) was obtained with PBDT-TZN as the electron donor under the illumination of Air Mass 1.5, 100 mW/cm(2). (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.