Petr V. Dmitryakov

Effects of oligothiophene π-bridge length on physical and photovoltaic properties of star-shaped molecules for bulk heterojunction solar cells

The preparation of four different star-shaped donor (D)–π–acceptor (A) small molecules (N(Ph-1T-DCN-Me)3, N(Ph-2T-DCN-Me)3, N(Ph-2T-DCN-Hex)3 and N(Ph-3T-DCN-Hex)3) possessing various oligothiophene π-bridge lengths and their use in solution-processed bulk heterojunction small molecule solar cells is reported. Optical and electrochemical data show that increasing oligothiophene π-bridge length leads to a decrease of the optical band gap due to a parallel increase of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level. Furthermore, subtle modifications of a molecular π-bridge length strongly affect the thermal behavior, solubility, crystallization, film morphology and charge carrier mobility, which in turn significantly change the device performance. Although the moderately increasing oligothiophene π-bridge length uplifts the HOMO level, it nevertheless induces an increase of the efficiency of the resulting solar cells due to a simultaneous improvement of the short circuit current (Jsc) and fill factor (FF). The study demonstrates that such an approach can represent an interesting tool for the effective modulation of the photovoltaic properties of the organic solar cells (OSCs) at a moderate cost.

Star-shaped D–π–A oligothiophenes with a tris(2-methoxyphenyl)amine core and alkyldicyanovinyl groups: synthesis and physical and photovoltaic properties

Synthesis of a series of star-shaped oligomers having a novel electron donating tris(2-methoxyphenyl)amine (m-TPA) core, which is linked through a bithiophene or terthiophene π-bridge with electron-deficient alkyldicyanovinyl (alkyl-DCV) groups, is described. A comprehensive study of the oligomers revealed significant dependence of their physical properties, including absorption, molecular frontier energy levels, crystal packing, and melting and glass transition temperatures, upon the chemical structure. A comparison of their photophysical properties to the nearest analog having the common dicyanovinyl (DCV) groups demonstrated a number of benefits to use alkyl-DCV units for the design of donor–acceptor small molecules: higher solubility, increased electrochemical stability, better photovoltaic performance, and possibility to control the relative physical and photovoltaic properties by a simple adjustment of alkyl and π-bridge lengths. Modification of the well-known triphenylamine (TPA) core in the star-shaped oligomers by methoxy groups increases not only solubility, but also crystallinity of the oligomers, whereas their photovoltaic performance stays on a similar level as their analogs with a TPA core. The study demonstrates that these design strategies represent interesting and simple tools for the effective modulation of properties of star-shaped molecules.

Synthesis and photovoltaic effect in red/near-infrared absorbing A-D-A-D-A-type oligothiophenes containing benzothiadiazole and thienothiadiazole central units

Abstract. Two π-conjugated acceptor-donor-acceptor-donor-acceptor-type (A-D-A-D-A) oligothiophenes, TT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 and BT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 were designed and synthesized with thienothiadiazole (TT) or benzothiadiazole (BT) as the core and dicyanovinyl (DCV) as the terminal acceptor groups for comprehensively investigating and understanding structure–property relationships. The resulting oligomers were first characterized by thermal analysis, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. By simply changing the BT to TT core in these two oligothiophenes, the highest occupied molecular orbital levels were varied from −5.55  eV for BT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 to −5.11  eV for TT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2, and the optical band gaps were varied from 1.72 eV for BT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 to 1.25 eV for TT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2, ascribed to the stronger electron accepting character of the TT core. However, the power conversion efficiency of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells (OSCs) with TT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 as donor and [6,6]-phenyl C70-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM) as acceptor was measured to be 0.04% only, which is much lower than that of BT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2:PC71BM (1.54%). Compared to the TT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 system, the BT-(2T-DCV-Hex)2 based device shows smoother film surface morphology, and superior charge generation and charge carrier mobilities. Therefore, the results clearly demonstrate that in addition to modifying the alkyl side chains and π-bridge lengths, the design of new small molecules for high-performance OSCs should also aim to choose suitable acceptor units.

Nanocomposite nonwoven materials based on polyamide-6 and montmorillonite, prepared by electrospinning of the polymer melt

The effect of montmorillonite on the structure and properties of nonwoven microfibrous materials based on polyamide-6 and prepared by electrospinning of the polymer melt was studied. Addition of 3% montmorillonite into the melt increases its viscosity and electrical conductivity, with the mean diameter of the formed fibers increasing from 8 to 12 μm. As shown by X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry, pellets of the pristine polyamide are characterized by prevalence of crystals of the stable α-form, whereas in the composites and nonwoven materials the metastable γ-form prevails. Addition of montmorillonite only slightly influences the contact angles, and the resulting materials exhibit nearly superhydrophobic properties.

Influence of chemical structure of branched and dendritic organosilicon luminophores on their optical and thermal properties

Abstract Synthesis and investigation of optical and thermal properties of a homologous series of highly luminescent nanostructured organosilicon luminophores (NOLs) containing different donor to acceptor ratio (D:A) are reported. Each of the NOL consists of a 1,4-bis(5-phenylthienyl-2-yl)benzene (PTPTP) acceptor unit and four, six or twelve 2,2′-bithienyl donor fragments connected to each other through two or six silicon atoms. These complex molecules show a “molecular antenna” effect with high efficiency of intramolecular energy transfer about 97-98% combined with excellent photoluminescence (PL) quantum yield of 84-91% and fast PL decay time of 0.90-0.95 ns. A significant increase of the molar extinction coefficient from 94 000 to 257 000 M−1cm−1 with increasing the D:A ratio from 4:1 to 12:1 was observed. It was found that increasing the branching extent in the NOLs prohibits their crystallization. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed that all the NOLs reported, regardless of their branching extent, are thermally stable up to 455 °C under nitrogen. These characteristics make them promising materials for various organic photonics applications.

Effect of core modification in star-shaped donor-acceptor oligomers on physical properties and photovoltaic performance

A series of star-shaped donor-acceptor oligomers having alkyldicyanovinyl fragments as electron-withdrawing groups, 2,2′-bithiophene as a conjugated π-bridge and either triphenylamine or its modified analogs (9-phenyl-9H-carbazole derivatives or tris(2-methoxyphenyl)amine as electron-donating cores was designed, synthesized and investigated. Variation of the chemical nature of the donor core allowed elucidating the structure-properties relationships for their solubility, absorption spectra, electrochemistry, phase behavior as well as photovoltaic performance in bulk heterojunction organic solar cells as donor materials in their mixtures with PC70BM. The star-shaped molecules based on triphenylamine and tris(2-methoxyphenyl)amine cores have reduced bandgaps, which leads to more efficient absorption of the sun light and better photovoltaic performance.