Selective Soxhlets extraction to enhance solubility of newly-synthesized poly(indoloindole-selenophene vinylene selenophene) donor for photovoltaic applications

Abstract An electron-rich fused indoloindole-based poly(indoloindole-selenophene vinylene selenophene) was synthesized and characterized. Soxhlet can be obtained by continuously purifying the product with a specific solvent and obtaining a pure polymer with a high concentration. Molecular weight is affected by the vapor pressure of marginal solvent, and the polymer was fractionated using tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, and chlorobenzene. Solubility is closely related to the morphology of bulk heterojunction and device parameters. In the solution process of fabricating the organic solar cell, securement of solubility has a great effect on the performance of the device, because morphology and orientation of a photo-active layer which significantly affect charge transport in the device. Since tetrahydrofuran (THF) Soxhlet solvents have high vapor pressure and appropriate solubility parameters, THF induced the best solubility of P-IDI-SVS materials for organic solvents. And through additive optimization, the performance of the device based on P-IDI-SVS from THF-Soxhlet extraction was enhanced. This is expected to be a meaningful study because the effect on solubility of Soxhlet solvent suggests factors to be considered in the solution process in organic solar cell research. In addition, surface modified bulk heterojunction was observed using atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence, time-correlated single photon counting and Raman spectroscopy analysis.