Web Release Date: November 28,
Photovoltaic-Active Dithienosilole-Containing Polymers
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Dayton, 300 College Park, Dayton, Ohio 45469-0240
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Paterson AFB, Ohio 45433
National Research Council of Canada, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, Canada, K1A 0R6
Received August 13, 2007
Revised Manuscript Received October 17, 2007
Abstract:
Silole-containing polymers consisting of a dithienosilole homopolymer backbone (12) or an
alternating dithienosilole and 4,7-bis(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole copolymer backbone (13) were synthesized.
The presence of planar dithienosilole tricyclic units along these 
-conjugated polymer backbones lowered the
band gap and led to strong absorption in the visible region of the solar spectrum. The introduction of electron-withdrawing benzothiadiazole moieties along the dithienosilole backbone further reduced the optical band gap
and increased the interchain interaction. Bulk-heterojunction organic solar cells using 1:1 w/w polymer 12 or
13:PCBM (methanofullerene [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester) blends as the photoactive layers were
prepared. Photovoltaic cells with copolymer 13 as the electron donor and PCBM as the electron acceptor exhibited
an increased energy conversion efficiency by a factor of 3 up to 0.18% under an AM 1.5 simulated solar light
at 100 mW/cm2 after thermal annealing at 140 
C.
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