New ultra low bandgap thiadiazolequinoxaline-based D-A copolymers for photovoltaic applications

Abstract In this communication, we designed two low bandgap D-A copolymers with same fluorinated thiadiazoloquinoxaline (TDQ) as acceptor and different donor units benzo[2,1-b;3,4-b′]dithiophene ( P1 ) and benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene ( P2 ). P1 and P2 exhibit broad absorption profiles covering from 350 nm to 1150 nm and 350–950 nm, respectively with optical bandgaps of 1.06 eV and 1.18 eV, respectively. Both copolymers showed deep highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMO), i.e. −5.38 eV and −5.26 eV, for P1 and P2 . Their photovoltaic properties were evaluated using conventional devices with a structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/copolymer:PC 71 BM/Al. After the optimizations of the copolymer to PC 71 BM weight ratios, and concentration of the solvent additive (DIO), the devices showed overall power conversion efficiencies of 4.03% and 5.42% for the P1 and P2 based devices, respectively. The higher value of PCE of the P2 based device is attributed to the higher values of J sc and FF, that is related to the higher hole mobility and better exciton dissociation efficiency. Although the PCEs of these devices are moderate, these ultra low band gap copolymers can be used for their potential application in tandem polymers solar cells. Finally, methanol treatment of the active layer was adopted to increase the PCE of the P2 :PC 71 BM based polymer solar cells that resulted in an improved PCE up to 6.93%.