A polymer with a benzo[2,1-b;3,4-b']dithiophene moiety for photovoltaic applications.

The characterization of a benzo[2,1-b;3,4-b']dithiophene containing conjugated polymer (PBTT) is demonstrated, with regard to its photovoltaic performance. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the thermal treatment results in an increased crystallinity within the PBTT:[70]PCBM network and subsequent spatial rearrangement in the film. Upon stepwise annealing, the PBTT-based bulk-heterojunction solar cells show an overall conversion efficiency of 2.7% under 1 sun light illumination. The photovoltaic devices based on PBTT show a high efficiency, maintained over one month. All these aspects suggest that the use of self-organizable materials is an efficient approach for high-performance photovoltaic applications.