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Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells

A new side-chain C(60)-fullerene functionalized thiophene copolymer bearing tributylphosphine-substituted hexylic lateral groups was successfully synthesized by means of a fast and effective post-polymerization reaction on a regioregular ω-alkylbrominated polymeric precursor. The growth of the polym...

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Autores principales: Lanzi, Massimiliano, Quadretti, Debora, Marinelli, Martina, Ziai, Yasamin, Salatelli, Elisabetta, Pierini, Filippo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8158483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34070205
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13101640
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author Lanzi, Massimiliano
Quadretti, Debora
Marinelli, Martina
Ziai, Yasamin
Salatelli, Elisabetta
Pierini, Filippo
author_facet Lanzi, Massimiliano
Quadretti, Debora
Marinelli, Martina
Ziai, Yasamin
Salatelli, Elisabetta
Pierini, Filippo
author_sort Lanzi, Massimiliano
collection PubMed
description A new side-chain C(60)-fullerene functionalized thiophene copolymer bearing tributylphosphine-substituted hexylic lateral groups was successfully synthesized by means of a fast and effective post-polymerization reaction on a regioregular ω-alkylbrominated polymeric precursor. The growth of the polymeric intermediate was followed by NMR spectrometry in order to determine the most convenient reaction time. The obtained copolymer was soluble in water and polar solvents and was used as a photoactive layer in single-material organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells. The copolymer photovoltaic efficiency was compared with that of an OPV cell containing a water-soluble polythiophenic homopolymer, functionalized with the same tributylphosphine-substituted hexylic side chains, in a blend with a water-soluble C(60)-fullerene derivative. The use of a water-soluble double-cable copolymer made it possible to enhance the control on the nanomorphology of the active blend, thus reducing phase-segregation phenomena, as well as the macroscale separation between the electron acceptor and donor components. Indeed, the power conversion efficiency of OPV cells based on a single material was higher than that obtained with the classical architecture, involving the presence of two distinct ED and EA materials (PCE: 3.11% vs. 2.29%, respectively). Moreover, the synthetic procedure adopted to obtain single material-based cells is more straightforward and easier than that used for the preparation of the homopolymer-based BHJ solar cell, thus making it possible to completely avoid the long synthetic pathway which is required to prepare water-soluble fullerene derivatives.
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spelling pubmed-81584832021-05-28 Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells Lanzi, Massimiliano Quadretti, Debora Marinelli, Martina Ziai, Yasamin Salatelli, Elisabetta Pierini, Filippo Polymers (Basel) Article A new side-chain C(60)-fullerene functionalized thiophene copolymer bearing tributylphosphine-substituted hexylic lateral groups was successfully synthesized by means of a fast and effective post-polymerization reaction on a regioregular ω-alkylbrominated polymeric precursor. The growth of the polymeric intermediate was followed by NMR spectrometry in order to determine the most convenient reaction time. The obtained copolymer was soluble in water and polar solvents and was used as a photoactive layer in single-material organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells. The copolymer photovoltaic efficiency was compared with that of an OPV cell containing a water-soluble polythiophenic homopolymer, functionalized with the same tributylphosphine-substituted hexylic side chains, in a blend with a water-soluble C(60)-fullerene derivative. The use of a water-soluble double-cable copolymer made it possible to enhance the control on the nanomorphology of the active blend, thus reducing phase-segregation phenomena, as well as the macroscale separation between the electron acceptor and donor components. Indeed, the power conversion efficiency of OPV cells based on a single material was higher than that obtained with the classical architecture, involving the presence of two distinct ED and EA materials (PCE: 3.11% vs. 2.29%, respectively). Moreover, the synthetic procedure adopted to obtain single material-based cells is more straightforward and easier than that used for the preparation of the homopolymer-based BHJ solar cell, thus making it possible to completely avoid the long synthetic pathway which is required to prepare water-soluble fullerene derivatives. MDPI 2021-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8158483/ /pubmed/34070205 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13101640 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lanzi, Massimiliano
Quadretti, Debora
Marinelli, Martina
Ziai, Yasamin
Salatelli, Elisabetta
Pierini, Filippo
Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title_full Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title_fullStr Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title_full_unstemmed Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title_short Influence of the Active Layer Structure on the Photovoltaic Performance of Water-Soluble Polythiophene-Based Solar Cells
title_sort influence of the active layer structure on the photovoltaic performance of water-soluble polythiophene-based solar cells
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8158483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34070205
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym13101640
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