Atomic Engineering of Conjugated Polymers for High Performance Photovoltaic Cells.

技术总结。由于其独特的半导体和聚合物加工特性的结合，共轭聚合物在学术和商业上都被探索用于有机电子应用。这些材料的两个重要好处是有机会通过合成来优化其特定应用的光学和电子特性，并有机会通过使用溶液处理技术来降低电子设备制造的成本。虽然已经合成了许多不同的共轭聚合物，但只有少数在有机光伏电池中表现出高效率。此外，其中许多是基于难以合成的杂环的复杂组合。该项目的愿景和目标是开发基于苯二氯代基苯的新型聚合物，苯二氯代基苯是一类杂环化合物，包括苯并[1,2-b:4,5-b']二噻吩，它已被用于高性能有机光伏电池的共聚物。此外，这些构建块可以很容易地从低成本的起始材料合成几个高产的步骤，并且很容易定制。本项目将(i)评估原子工程对材料性能的影响；（ii）通过光谱测量和有机光伏电池的性能来研究材料的物理、光学和电子特性；（iii）为本科生和研究生提供跨学科的研究经验，（iv）通过创造性的推广工作，培养对聚合物科学的兴趣，目标是所有教育水平的女性和代表性不足的少数民族学生。非技术总结。合成聚合物作为天然材料的替代品正得到广泛的发展。虽然这些新的聚合物不能精确地复制天然材料的性能，但它们可以在原子水平上进行修饰，以提供具有不同和潜在改进性能的材料。对于电子应用，可以与无机基材料相媲美的半导体聚合物是很容易制备的。此外，可以通过化学合成改变它们的性质，在适当的条件下制备大量的材料，并使用诸如喷墨印刷的溶液处理技术制造大面积薄膜。所有这些都可以显著降低聚合物基太阳能电池的成本。该奖项将(i)支持旨在增加设计和生产用于“塑料”太阳能电池的导电聚合物的基本知识的研究；（ii）为本科生和研究生提供跨学科的研究经验，（iii）通过创造性的推广工作，培养对聚合物科学的兴趣，目标是所有教育水平的女性和代表性不足的少数民族学生。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY. Due to their unique combination of semiconducting and polymer processing properties, conjugated polymers are being explored both academically and commercially for use in organic electronic applications. Two important benefits of these materials are the opportunity to optimize their optical and electronic properties for specific applications through synthesis and the chance to reduce the cost of electronic device manufacturing through the use of solution processing techniques. Although a number of different conjugated polymers have been synthesized, only a few have exhibited high efficiencies in organic photovoltaic cells. Furthermore, many of these are based on complex combinations of heterocycles that are difficult to synthesize. The vision and goals of this project are to develop new polymers based on benzodichalocogenophenes, a class of heterocycles that includes benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene, which has been used in copolymers for high performing organic photovoltaic cells. Furthermore, these building blocks can be easily synthesized in a few high yielding steps from low-cost starting materials and are readily customized. This project will (i) evaluate the impact of atomic engineering on the materials properties; (ii) investigate the physical, optical, and electronic properties of the materials through spectroscopic measurements and performance in organic photovoltaic cells; (iii) provide interdisciplinary research experiences for both undergraduate and graduate students, and (iv) foster interest in polymer science through a creative outreach effort targeting female and underrepresented minority students at all educational levels.NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY. Synthetic polymers are being widely developed as replacements for natural materials. While these new polymers cannot precisely duplicate the properties of naturally occurring materials, they can be modified at the atomic level to afford materials with different and potentially improved properties. For electronic applications, semiconducting polymers that rival inorganic-based materials are readily prepared. Furthermore, it is possible to alter their properties through chemical synthesis, prepare a large amount of material under moderate conditions, and fabricate large-area films using solution-processing techniques such as inkjet printing. All of these can significantly reduce the cost of polymer-based solar cells. This award will (i) support research intended to increase basic knowledge for designing and producing conducting polymers with optimized properties for use in "plastic" solar cells; (ii) provide interdisciplinary research experiences for both undergraduate and graduate students, and (iii) foster interest in polymer science through a creative outreach effort targeting female and underrepresented minority students at all educational levels.