cfaed Seminar Series

Abstract 

This presentation reports on the characterization of electronic main-chain defects unintentionally formed during the synthesis of conjugated polymers under non-optimum conditions and their consequences in electronic devices. While a plethora of new building blocks and suitable candidates of high performance conjugated polymers have been presented recently, much less attention has been devoted to batch-to-batch reproducibility, device reproducibility and comparability of literature results. It is shown that main chain electronic defects unintentionally form through homocoupling reactions that are prevalent and significantly impact the performance of electronic devices (e.g. solar cells).[1-6] Importantly, such defect structures can form independent of the polycondensation method used, and thus need to be analyzed from case to case. Several examples of high-performance conjugated polymers made by C-H activation polycondensation or Suzuki polycondensation will be presented in which main chain defects are analyzed on a quantitative basis. It is suggested that main chain defects must be considered in addition to molecular weight and dispersity to explore the full potential of a polymeric semiconductor, and to enhance comparability of results.[6]

References

[1] Lombeck, F.; Komber, H.; Gorelsky, S.; Sommer, M. ACS MacroLett 2014, 3, 819.
[2] Luzio, A.; Fazzi, D.; Nübling, F.; Matsidik, R.; Straub, A.; Komber, H.; Giussani, E.; Watkins, S.; Barbatti, M.; Thiel, W.; Gann, E.; Thomsen, L.; McNeill, C. R.; Caironi, M.; Sommer, M. Chem. Mater. 2014, 26, 6233-6240
[3] Lombeck, F., Matsidik, R., Komber, H., Sommer, M., Macromol. Rapid Commun. 2015, 36, 231
[4] Matsidik, R., Komber, H., Luzio, A., Caironi, M., Sommer, M, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2015, 137, 6705-6711
[5] S. Broll, F. Nübling, A. Luzio, H. Komber, M. Caironi, M. Sommer, Macromolecules 2015, 48, 7481–7488
[6] F. Lombeck et al., Adv. Energy Mater. 2016, 6, 1601232.