title: Effects of Alkylthio and Alkoxy Side Chains in Polymer Donor Materials for Organic Solar Cells.
abstract: Side chains play a considerable role not only in improving the solubility of polymers for solution-processed device fabrication, but also in affecting the molecular packing, electron affinity and thus the device performance. In particular, electron-donating side chains show unique properties when employed to tune the electronic character of conjugated polymers in many cases. Therefore, rational electron-donating side chain engineering can improve the photovoltaic properties of the resulting polymer donors to some extent. Here, a survey of some representative examples which use electron-donating alkylthio and alkoxy side chains in conjugated organic polymers for polymer solar cell applications will be presented. It is envisioned that an analysis of the effect of such electron-donating side chains in polymer donors would contribute to a better understanding of this kind of side chain behavior in solution-processed conjugated organic polymers for polymer solar cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Institute of Advanced Materials, Hong Kong Baptist University, Waterloo Road, Hong Kong, PR China.|Laboratory of Advanced Optoelectronic Materials, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P R China.
authors.forename: Chaohua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Institute of Advanced Materials, Hong Kong Baptist University, Waterloo Road, Hong Kong, PR China.|HKBU Institute of Research and Continuing Education, Shenzhen Virtual University Park, Shenzhen, 518057, P R China.
authors.forename: Wai-Yeung
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D004583:Electrons; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers
keywords: electron donors; organic photovoltaics; polymer donors; polymer solar cells