Synthesis, characterization and photovoltaic properties of poly(cyclopentadithiophene-alt-isoindigo)

Isoindigo based conducting polymers have attracted extensive interest for polymer solar cell application since isoindigo is a green material and renewable from plants. We have synthesized four soluble low band gap isoindigo based polymers (PCI) with cyclopentadithiophene (CPDT) as the donor unit and isoindigo (I) as the acceptor unit, decorated with two kinds of alkyl side chains, octyl (8) and 2-ethylhexyl (e), via the Stille cross-coupling reaction denoted as PC8I8, PC8Ie, PCeI8 and PCeIe. By changing the side chain of copolymers from linear (PC8I8) to branched (PCeIe), the lambda(max) of absorption is blue shifted from 1.37 to 1.48 eV and the HOMO level is lowered from -5.24 to -5.45 eV. The changes are due to the twist coplanarity of the polymer backbone. The density functional theory calculation revealed that the dihedral angle of copolymers has been increased from 14 degrees to 20 degrees. The properties of PC8Ie and PCeI8 lie between those of PC8I8 and PCeIe. The type of the side chain plays a major role in determining the photovoltaic performance of copolymers. The branched side chain improves the solubility of the polymer and increases the effective phase separation between the copolymer and PCBM. This results in favorable nanomorphology of the active layer. Thus, PCeIe with branched side chains on both donor and acceptor units exhibits the best photovoltaic properties with a V-oc of 0.80 eV, J(sc) of 11.6 mA cm(-2) and fill factor of 43.0% and power conversion efficiency of 4.0%. The power conversion efficiency of this type of polymer could be further improved by optimizing the fabrication conditions and interlayer modification. This study offers a useful guideline for the molecular design of high efficiency isoindigo-based polymer solar cells.