title: Metallated conjugated polymers as a new avenue towards high-efficiency polymer solar cells.
abstract: Bulk heterojunction solar cells have been extensively studied owing to their great potential for cost-effective photovoltaic devices. Although recent advances resulted in the fabrication of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT)/fullerene derivative based solar cells with efficiencies in the range 4.4-5.0%, theoretical calculations predict that the development of novel donor materials with a lower bandgap is required to exceed the power-conversion efficiency of 10%. However, all of the lower bandgap polymers developed so far have failed to reach the efficiency of P3HT-based cells. To address this issue, we synthesized a soluble, intensely coloured platinum metallopolyyne with a low bandgap of 1.85 eV. The solar cells, containing metallopolyyne/fullerene derivative blends as the photoactive material, showed a power-conversion efficiency with an average of 4.1%, without annealing or the use of spacer layers needed to achieve comparable efficiency with P3HT. This clearly demonstrates the potential of metallated conjugated polymers for efficient photovoltaic devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University, Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, PR China. rwywong@hkbu.edu.hk
authors.forename: Wai-Yeung
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Xing-Zhu
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ze
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Aleksandra B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Djurisić
authors.forename: Cho-Tung
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.forename: Kai-Yin
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Cheung
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chris S K
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Wai-Kin
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Chan