How intermolecular geometrical disorder affects the molecular doping of donor-acceptor copolymers

Nature Communications
Daniele Di NuzzoEnrico Da Como

Abstract

Molecular doping of conjugated polymers represents an important strategy for improving organic electronic devices. However, the widely reported low efficiency of doping remains a crucial limitation to obtain high performance. Here we investigate how charge transfer between dopant and donor-acceptor copolymers is affected by the spatial arrangement of the dopant molecule with respect to the copolymer repeat unit. We p-dope a donor-acceptor copolymer and probe its charge-sensitive molecular vibrations in films by infrared spectroscopy. We find that, compared with a related homopolymer, a four times higher dopant/polymer molar ratio is needed to observe signatures of charges. By DFT methods, we simulate the vibrational spectra, moving the dopant along the copolymer backbone and finding that efficient charge transfer occurs only when the dopant is close to the donor moiety. Our results show that the donor-acceptor structure poses an obstacle to efficient doping, with the acceptor moiety being inactive for p-type doping.

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Citations

Jan 23, 2016·Molecules : a Journal of Synthetic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry·Davide VanossiClaudio Fontanesi
Sep 26, 2015·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Wen ShiZhigang Shuai
Aug 4, 2015·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Tomoyasu ManiJohn R Miller
Jul 15, 2015·Nano Letters·Zilong WangCesare Soci
Sep 19, 2017·Advanced Materials·Ian E Jacobs, Adam J Moulé
Jun 22, 2018·Advanced Materials·Suhao WangAntonio Facchetti
Aug 14, 2018·Advanced Materials·Yong XuYong-Young Noh
Aug 2, 2016·Advanced Materials·Yong XuYong-Young Noh
Oct 28, 2016·Advanced Materials·Suhao WangSimone Fabiano
Jan 13, 2018·Advanced Materials·Jian LiuL Jan Anton Koster
Dec 10, 2020·Advanced Materials·Matthew G VossBenjamin J Schwartz
Jan 10, 2019·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Han YanWei Ma
Dec 23, 2020·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Hu ChenIain McCulloch
Nov 19, 2021·Chemical Reviews·Alberto D ScaccabarozziThomas D Anthopoulos

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