Journal of Research Updates in Polymer Science

Design, Synthesis, Characterizations, and Processing of a Novel c-Donor-nc-Bridge-cf-Acceptor Type Block Copolymer for Optoelecronic Applications
Pages 18-38
Thuong H. Nguyen, Muhammad Hasib, Dan Wang and Sam-Shajing Sun

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-5995.2016.05.01.3

Published: 18 April 2016


Abstract: A novel c-D-nc-B-cf-A (or DBfA) type of block copolymer has been designed, synthesized, characterized, and preliminarily studied for optoectronic applications, where c-D is a conjugated donor type polyphenylenevinylene (PPV) block, nc-B is a non-conjugated bridge unit, and cf-A is a conjugated and fluorinated acceptor type PPV block. The frontier HOMO/LUMO orbital levels of D and fA conjugated blocks are -5.22/-3.06 and -6.10/-3.43 as determined from electrochemical and optical measurements. Photoluminescence emissions of D and fA are quenched in DBfA indicating a potential photo induced charge separation pathway between the donor and the acceptor blocks. Solid state thin film studies revealed more uniform and nano-scale phase separated morphologies in DBfA as compared to D/fA blend. A two orders of magnitude enhancement of photoelectric energy conversion efficiency was observed in a best solar cell fabricated from the DBfA block copolymer as compared to a best cell fabricated from the corresponding D/fA blend. Such significant photoelectric conversion enhancement could be attributed to the improvements of phase separated and bicontinously ordered nanostructure (BONS) morphology in DBfA as compared to D/fA.

Keywords: Conjugated block copolymers, polyphenylenevinylenes, fluorinated conjugated polymers, donor-bridge-acceptor, electron transfer, photo induced charge separation, ligtht harvesting, optoelectronics, solar energy conversions, self-assembly, nano phase separation.
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