Development of Highly Crystalline Donor–Acceptor-Type Random Polymers for High Performance Large-Area Organic Solar Cells

We developed donor–acceptor (D–A)-type random polymers based on 3,3′-difluoro-2,2′-bithiophene with various relative amounts of 5,6-difluoro-4,7-bis(5-bromo-(2-decyltetradecyl)thiophen-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (2FBT) and 5,6-difluoro-4,7-bis(5-bromo-(2-octyldodecyl)thiophen-2-yl)-2-(3,4-dichlorobenzyloxybutyl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazole (DCB-2FBTZ). Introducing small relative amounts of DCB-2FBTZ into the polymer was found to effectively enhance its solar cell performance, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 9.02%, greater than the 7.29% that resulted from the PFBT-FTh copolymer. Moreover, when the active area of the BHJ film was increased to 1 cm2, the solar cell reproducibly showed a high performance, here with an efficiency of 8.01% even when the thickness of the active layer was 313 nm. Our studies revealed that including the DCB-2FBTZ group in the polymer simultaneously improved the solution processability and crystallinity of the polymer. These improvements resulted in the formation of...