Analysis of Diverse Direct Arylation Polymerization (DArP) Conditions Toward the Efficient Synthesis of Polymers Converging with Stille Polymers in Organic Solar Cells

作者：Livi Francesco; Gobalasingham Nemal S; Thompson Barry C; Bundgaard Eva

来源：Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry , 2016, 54(18): 2907-2918.

DOI：10.1002/pola.28176

• conjugated polymers
• copolymerization
• polyaromatics
• direct arylation polymerisation
• solar cells

Despite the emergence of direct arylation polymerization (DArP) as an alternative method to traditional cross-coupling routes like Stille polymerization, the exploration of DArP polymers in practical applications like polymer solar cells (PSCs) is limited. DArP polymers tend to have a reputation for being marginally inferior to Stille counterparts due to the increased presence of defects that result from unwanted side reactions in direct arylation, such as unselective C-H bond activation and homocoupling. We report ten DArP protocols across the three major classes of DArP to generate poly[(2,5-bis(2-hexyldecyloxy) phenylene)-alt-(4,7-di(thiophen-2-yl) benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole)] (PPDTBT). Through evaluation of the method and resulting photophysical and electronic properties, we show not all DArP methods are suitable for generating device-quality alternating copolymers. When DArP PPDTBT was synthesized in superheated THF with Cs2CO3, neodecanoic acid, and P(o-anisyl) 3, it generated polymers of exceptional quality that performed comparably to Stille counterparts in both roll coated ITO-free and spin-coated ITO devices.

• 出版日期2016-9-15