Title
Revealing temperature-dependent polymer aggregation in solution with small-angle X-ray scattering
Date Issued
28 January 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Abdelsamie M.
Chaney T.P.
Yan H.
Schneider S.A.
Ayhan I.A.
Reynolds J.R.
Toney M.F.
The Pennsylvania State University
Publisher(s)
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
Improving the morphology of bulk heterojunction active layers remains a primary challenge for organic photovoltaics (OPVs), and much research has been devoted to achieving this through modifying OPV casting solutions to control film formation and crystallinity. Yet, the solution conformation of conjugated polymers used in OPVs is largely unknown. Here, we report observations of temperature dependent aggregation (TDA) through small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) investigations of polymer conformation in chlorobenzene : dichlorobenzene casting solvent as a function of temperature for PffBT4T-2OD, a polymer known to display TDA, and its derivative PffBT3T-2OD which displays significantly reduced TDA. We find that, upon cooling below 80 °C, PffBT4T-2OD forms large crystalline aggregates in solution, while its derivative PffBT3T-2OD forms mostly amorphous aggregates of similar size with some evidence of short-range order. This change in solution aggregation behavior is reflected in the lack of gelation by PffBT3T-2OD upon film deposition by spin coating. Grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) revealed a preferred face-on π-π stacking orientation for PffBT3T-2OD films while PffBT4T-2OD's π-π stacking peak was isotropic. We combine these findings to suggest that the presence of crystalline seed aggregates in PffBT4T-2OD solution quickly form an isotropic crystallite network upon cooling while PffBT3T-2OD's amorphous aggregates more slowly crystallize resulting in improved processability of PffBT3T-2OD. This journal is
Start page
2096
End page
2104
Volume
10
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales Física y Astronomía
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85123709714
Source
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
ISSN of the container
20507488
Sponsor(s)
We thank Dr Bing Xu for the synthesis of the PffBT4T-2OD and PffBT3T-2OD polymers used in this study. We thank the Office of Naval Research for support through the Center for Self-Assembled Organic Electronics (SOE), grant N00014-19-1-2453 (TPC, SAS, MFT, IAA, EDG) and grant N00014-21-1-2087 (JRR). Use of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported the US DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract DE-AC02-76SF00515.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus