Synthesis and Photovoltaic Properties of Side-Chain Liquid-Crystal Click Polymers for Dye-Sensitized Solar-Cells Application

SCLCPs are synthesized using “click chemistry”. The resulting polymers, P1 and P2, have good solubilities and molecular‐weight distributions. Their $\overline {M} _{{\rm w}} $ and polydispersities are in the ranges of 26.7–8.4 × 103 g · mol−1 and 1.99–1.29, respectively. DSC and POM studies reveal that both polymers exhibit liquid‐crystalline behavior. P1 and P2 are found to display blue emission. DSSCs are fabricated using P1 and P2 as matrices for electrolytes. The maximum PCE of the P1‐ and P2‐based polymer electrolytes is 4.11% (at 1 sun). This synthesis route has again proven to be a useful synthetic methodology for fabricating SCLCPs that are promising materials for device applications. Side‐chain liquid‐crystalline polymers P1 and P2 are synthesized using “click chemistry”. J–V curves of DSSC devices using P1, P2 and PAN as polymer matrices under AM 1.5G illumination (100 mW · cm−2) are shown. These DSSCs exhibit photovoltaic performances with power‐conversion efficiencies of 4.11, 3.20 and 3.43%, for the P1‐, P2‐ and PAN‐based polymer electrolytes, respectively: the device using the P1‐based polymer electrolyte gave the highest PCE.