Short-Axis Methyl Substitution Approach on Indacenodithiophene: A New Multi-Fused Ladder-Type Arene for Organic Solar Cells

Indacenodithiophene (IDT) is a promising building block for designing organic semiconductors. In this work, a new pentacyclic ladder-type arene IDMe was designed and synthesized by introducing methyl substitution on the short-axis of IDT. Two non-fullerene electron acceptors (IDIC and ID-MeIC) witho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in chemistry 2019-06, Vol.7, p.372-372
Main Authors: Li, Yun, Wang, Menghan, Wu, Fupeng, Gao, Xuyu, Huettner, Sven, Tao, Youtian, Jiang, Zuo-Quan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemistry
indacenodithiophene
methyl group
non-fullerene electron acceptors
polymer solar cells
short-axis substitution
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Summary:Indacenodithiophene (IDT) is a promising building block for designing organic semiconductors. In this work, a new pentacyclic ladder-type arene IDMe was designed and synthesized by introducing methyl substitution on the short-axis of IDT. Two non-fullerene electron acceptors (IDIC and ID-MeIC) without and with methyl substitution were designed and synthesized for further study. Compared with IDIC, ID-MeIC with methyl substitution on the short-axis of IDT shows smaller bandgap, stronger extinction coefficient, and better crystallinity. Besides, PBDB-T: ID-MeIC blend film shows more efficient exciton generation and dissociation and more balanced charge transport mobility. Therefore, polymer solar cells based on PBDB-T: ID-MeIC can achieve better photovoltaic performance with a PCE of 6.46% and substantial increase in to 14.13 mA cm compared to 4.94% and 9.10 mA cm of PBDB-T: IDIC. These results suggest that short-axis substitution on multi-fused ladder-type arenes, such as IDT is an effective way to change the optical and electronic properties of the organic semiconductors for high-performance OPVs.
ISSN:2296-2646
2296-2646
DOI:10.3389/fchem.2019.00372