Synthesis and photovoltaic properties of thieno[3,2-b]thiophenyl substituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene copolymers

Abstract

A new benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) building block with 4,8-disubstitution using 2-(2-ethylhexyl)-3-hexylthieno[3,2-b]thiophene as the substituent has been designed and synthesized. The new building block has been copolymerized with benzothiadiazole (BT) and 5,6-difluorobenzothiadiazole (fBT) by Suzuki and Stille coupling polymerization to synthesize donor–acceptor conjugated polymers. The optical and electrochemical properties of the synthesized copolymers were studied. Bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricated using the donor–acceptor copolymers in conjunction with PC₇₁BM and exhibited up to 4.20% power conversion efficiency.