A Chem. Comm. out online towards the end of June reports on the use of an arylethynylene in a solution-processable solar cell.
Arylethynylenes can best be described by an example:
1,4-bis(phenylethynyl)benzene
Small, highly conjugated, linear molecules such as this are great systems to consider in organic electronic applications, as they are simpler to prepare, functionalize, and work with than polymers, and exhibit largely similar properties – interesting fluorescence and semiconducting abilities.
In the Chem. Comm. (online Jun 27) Shin et al. report on their design and preparation of a low band-gap p-type semiconductor, featuring anthracene substituted with ethynylene linkages to bithiophene groups. These are furthermore substituted with hexyl chains to facilitate packing. The low band gap of 1.86 eV enables good absorption of the solar spectrum, critical in solar cell applications.
HBTATHT
They have power conversion efficiencies of 4.84 % when used in conjuction with PC61BM – commonly used as the electron acceptor in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) cells.
For those of you who are wondering why I would make such a deal about this molecule – take a look at my publications’ list. I’ll always have a soft spot for arylethynylenes, as my thesis involved the preparation of numerous novel molecules, and their excited state property determination.
Shin et al. (2012). J-aggregation Induced Low Bandgap Anthracene-based Conjugated Molecule for Solution-processed Solar Cells Chem. Comm. DOI: 10.1039/c2cc34109c
