Synthesis of neutral stable polyradicals and their application on photovoltaic devices

Three stable polyradicals with large π-conjugated planar phenalenyl (PLY) radical units as side chain were synthesized and characterized by UV-vis, fluorescence and CV. Bulk heterojunction organic solar cell employing these polyradicals or their corresponding precursor polymers as donor material and PCBM as acceptor have been fabricated. The significant photovoltaic performance improvement was observed using a radical-based active layer in the solar cell devices.