Copolymers of Cyclopentadithiophene and Electron‐Deficient Aromatic Units Designed for Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract

Abstract Alternating copolymers based on cyclopentadithiophene (CPDT) and five different electron‐deficient aromatic units with reduced optical band gaps are synthesized via Suzuki coupling. All polymers show a significant photovoltaic response when mixed with a fullerene acceptor. The frontier orbital levels of the new polymers are designed to minimize energy losses by increasing the open‐circuit voltage with respect to the optical band gap, while maintaining a high coverage of the absorption with the solar spectrum. The best cells are obtained for a copolymer of CPDT and benzooxadiazole (BO) with a band gap of 1.47 eV. This cell gives a short‐circuit current of 5.4 mA cm −2 , an open‐circuit voltage of 0.78 V, and a fill factor of 0.6, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of about 2.5%.