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Electrochemical And Photovoltaic Properties Of Electropolymerized Poly(Thienyl-Silole)S, Joshua C. Byers, Paul M. Dicarmine, Mahmoud M. A. R. Moustafa, Xin Wang, Brian Pagenkopf, Oleg A. Semenikhin

Chemistry Publications

Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical properties were studied of a series of donor−acceptor materials based on polythiophene modified with silole moieties. The materials were prepared by electrochemical anodic polymerization of 2,5-bis([2,2′-bithiophen]-5-yl)-1,1-dimethyl-3,4-diphenylsilole and 2,5-bis([2,2′-terthiophen]-5-yl)-1,1-dimethyl-3,4-diphenylsilole, as well as copolymerization of these monomers with 2,2′-bithiophene. Photocurrent measurements showed that introduction of silole resulted in a considerable enhancement of the photovoltaic properties of silole-containing materials and especially the fill factor. However, as demonstrated by Mott−Schottky measurements, electropolymerized silole-containing materials showed a substantial degree of disorder and high density of states in the midgap, which negatively affected their photovoltaic properties. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and phase imaging …