Investigating Excited States and Absorption Spectra of the Poly-cyclopenta-dithiophene-benzothiadiazole Oligomers (Poly-CPDTBT)—A Theoretical Study

Abstract

Poly-CPDTBT, as typical low-band gap copolymers, have potential applications in organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. To have a clear picture of its excited-state processes, the first task is to understand their excited states, in particular, electronic character and relevant optical absorption. Herein, the low-lying singlet excited states of Poly-CPDTBT oligomers were investigated via Algebraic Diagrammatic Construction Second Order (ADC(2)) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) method with several functionals. Six CPDTBTN (N = 1–6) oligomers were taken as prototypes to study their excited states in detail. The results provide interesting clues to extrapolate the photophysical properties of such polymers with potential applications in photovoltaic materials. The result provided by ωB97XD functional gives good agreement with the experiment result. The vertical excitation energies of the four lowest excited states decrease almost linearly with increasing polymerization degree (N) for CPDTBTN (N = 1–6). The transition density analysis indicates that the local excitations (LE) and the short-distance charge transfer (CT) excitations between two adjacent CPDT and BT units are dominant for low-lying excited states for short oligomers. For the long-chain oligomers (trimer to hexamer), the transition density shows a ladder (or zigzag) pattern along the diagonal blocks at the planar geometry. For long oligomers, the whole chain is involved in the transitions, and the CT excitations only exist between two adjacent CPDT and BT units. The present work provides a valuable basis for understanding the excited-state processes of Poly-CPDTBT and other conjugated polymers that conduct solar energy conversions, which has great significance for the development of new solar cells.

Keywords

• Poly-CPDTBT
• transition density matrix
• absorption spectrum
• local and charge transfer excitation