Post-Polymerization Ketalization for Improved Organic Photovoltaic Materials

Poor organic photovoltaic device performance of a ketone-functionalized benzotrithiophene polymer with desirable frontier energy levels and a broad absorption in the visible region is successfully addressed through a new postpolymerization ketalization approach. Hereby, the initial ketone-functionalized polymer is converted to two different ketal derivatives, which show superior processability leading to significantly enhanced photovoltaic device performance.