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Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable

The acceptor-donor-acceptor (A–D–A) or A–DA’D–A structured small molecule acceptors (SMAs) have triggered substantial progress for polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, the high−cost of the SMAs impedes the commercial viability of such renewable energy, as their synthesis via the classical pyridine-c...

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Autores principales: Fu, Hongyuan, Yao, Jia, Zhang, Ming, Xue, Lingwei, Zhou, Qiuju, Li, Shangyu, Lei, Ming, Meng, Lei, Zhang, Zhi-Guo, Li, Yongfang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9237043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35760969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31389-y
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author Fu, Hongyuan
Yao, Jia
Zhang, Ming
Xue, Lingwei
Zhou, Qiuju
Li, Shangyu
Lei, Ming
Meng, Lei
Zhang, Zhi-Guo
Li, Yongfang
author_facet Fu, Hongyuan
Yao, Jia
Zhang, Ming
Xue, Lingwei
Zhou, Qiuju
Li, Shangyu
Lei, Ming
Meng, Lei
Zhang, Zhi-Guo
Li, Yongfang
author_sort Fu, Hongyuan
collection PubMed
description The acceptor-donor-acceptor (A–D–A) or A–DA’D–A structured small molecule acceptors (SMAs) have triggered substantial progress for polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, the high−cost of the SMAs impedes the commercial viability of such renewable energy, as their synthesis via the classical pyridine-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation usually suffers from low reaction efficiency and tedious purifying work-up. Herein, we developed a simple and cheap boron trifluoride etherate-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation for addressing this challenge, and found that the coupling of the aldehyde-terminated D unit and the A-end groups could be quantitatively finished in the presence of acetic anhydride within 15 minutes at room temperature. Compared with the conventional method, the high reaction efficiency of our method is related to the germinal diacetate pathway that is thermodynamically favorable to give the final products. For those high performing SMAs (such as ITIC-4F and Y6), the cost could be reduced by 50% compared with conventional preparation. In addition to the application in PSCs, our synthetic approach provides a facile and low-cost access to a wide range of D–A organic semiconductors for emerging technologies.
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spelling pubmed-92370432022-06-29 Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable Fu, Hongyuan Yao, Jia Zhang, Ming Xue, Lingwei Zhou, Qiuju Li, Shangyu Lei, Ming Meng, Lei Zhang, Zhi-Guo Li, Yongfang Nat Commun Article The acceptor-donor-acceptor (A–D–A) or A–DA’D–A structured small molecule acceptors (SMAs) have triggered substantial progress for polymer solar cells (PSCs). However, the high−cost of the SMAs impedes the commercial viability of such renewable energy, as their synthesis via the classical pyridine-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation usually suffers from low reaction efficiency and tedious purifying work-up. Herein, we developed a simple and cheap boron trifluoride etherate-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation for addressing this challenge, and found that the coupling of the aldehyde-terminated D unit and the A-end groups could be quantitatively finished in the presence of acetic anhydride within 15 minutes at room temperature. Compared with the conventional method, the high reaction efficiency of our method is related to the germinal diacetate pathway that is thermodynamically favorable to give the final products. For those high performing SMAs (such as ITIC-4F and Y6), the cost could be reduced by 50% compared with conventional preparation. In addition to the application in PSCs, our synthetic approach provides a facile and low-cost access to a wide range of D–A organic semiconductors for emerging technologies. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC9237043/ /pubmed/35760969 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31389-y Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Fu, Hongyuan
Yao, Jia
Zhang, Ming
Xue, Lingwei
Zhou, Qiuju
Li, Shangyu
Lei, Ming
Meng, Lei
Zhang, Zhi-Guo
Li, Yongfang
Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title_full Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title_fullStr Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title_full_unstemmed Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title_short Low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
title_sort low-cost synthesis of small molecule acceptors makes polymer solar cells commercially viable
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9237043/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35760969
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31389-y
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