Perylene Diimide Based Isomeric Conjugated Polymers as Efficient Electron Acceptors for All-polymer Solar Cells

We present here a series of perylene diimide (PDI) based isomeric conjugated polymers for the application as efficient electron acceptors in all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). By copolymerizing PDI monomers with 1,4-diethynylbenzene (para-linkage) and 1,3- diethynylbenzene (meta-linkage), isomeric PDI based conjugated polymers with parallel and non-parallel PDI units inside backbones were obtained. It was found that para-linked conjugated polymer (PA) showed better solubility, stronger π-π stacking, more favorable blend morphology, and better photovoltaic performance than those of meta-linked conjugated polymers (PM) did. Device based on PTB7-Th:PA (PTB7-Th:poly{4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)-thiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)- carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophene-4,6-diyl}) showed significantly enhanced photovoltaic performance than that of PTB7-Th:MA (3.29% versus 0.92%). Moreover, the photovoltaic performance of these polymeric acceptors could be further improved via a terpolymeric strategy. By copolymerizing a small amount of meta-linkages into PA, the optimized terpolymeric acceptors enabled to enhance photovoltaic performance with improved the short-circuit current density (Jsc) and fill factor (FF), resulting in an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.03%.