Aggregation-Induced Emission in a Polymeric Photovoltaic Donor Material

In this work, we report the aggregation-induced emission in a polymeric donor material poly(bis(2-butyloctyl)[2,2′:5′,2″-terthiophene]-4,4″-dicarboxylate-5,5′-diyl-vinylene) (PTVT-T), which exhibits a high device performance for the application of photovoltaics. Time-dependent density functional theory calculations and steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy have been employed to reveal the underlying emission mechanism. We find that the aggregation of the PTVT-T polymer chain in solution increases the exciton luminescence lifetime and exciton emission quantum yield, which is related to the effective torsional inhibition of carbon–carbon single bonds. Compared with the aggregates in solution, the exciton emission quantum yield of the aggregates in PTVT-T film is reduced. It is attributable to exciton delocalization caused by the improvement of molecular planarity in film. We also observe that the as-cast film and thermally annealed film show distinctly different emission behaviors. This work can shed light on designing optoelectronic polymer materials with the integration of photovoltaic and light-emitting functions.