New low band gap alternating polyfluorene copolymer-based photovoltaic cells

New low band gap alternating polyfluorene copolymers were synthesized for use in plastic solar cells and their optical, electrochemical, and photovoltaic characteristics were determined. These polymers incorporated fluorene units alternating with groups including electron-withdrawing (A) and electron-donating (D) groups in donor–acceptor–donor (DAD) sequence to achieve the lowering of band gaps. The HOMO–LUMO values were estimated from electrochemical studies. By varying the donor and acceptor strength and position of the solubilizing substituents, similar HOMO values were obtained. These values were also found to correlate well with the open circuit voltage (VOC) values determined from photovoltaic data of the polymers blended with the acceptor PCBM. Despite similar HOMO values, the absorption spectra of the polymers differ significantly. This prompted the preparation of photovoltaic devices consisting of blends of two polymers with complementary absorptions in combination with PCBM to harvest more photons in the polymer solar cells.