Multiscale Modelling Approach to Access Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of Polymeric Photovoltaic Materials
Moyses Araujo a b, Leandro Franco a, Cleber Marchiori a, Ellen Moons a
a Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, Sweden
b Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV23)
London, United Kingdom, 2023 June 12th - 14th
Organizers: Tracey Clarke, James Durrant and Trystan Watson
Oral, Moyses Araujo, presentation 160
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.hopv.2023.160
Publication date: 30th March 2023

The development of new organic photovoltaic materials based on non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) has led to a significant increase in the power conversion efficiency of organic photovoltaics (OPV) in the last years. However, the fundamental understanding of the charge photogeneration mechanism at the molecular level is still lacking, a scientific challenge whose solution could be the watershed in the discovery of novel OPV materials. To contribute to this end, we are developing a multi-scale method that combines Quantum Mechanics (QM) calculations and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations within the scope of a sequential-QM/MD approach to assess the electronic and optical properties of organic-polymeric photovoltaic materials. Despite being a well-established method to study small molecules in solution, it has not yet been developed to investigate polymer films cast from solution. Our methodology starts with the simulation of film formation through solvent molecules evaporation using classical molecular dynamics simulations. Then additional MD simulations are carried out on the obtained film to generate uncorrelated configurations to be used on the properties’ calculations. The latter is assessed through an electronic embedding scheme where a pre-defined molecular region, of the generated configuration, is treated at the QM level, incorporating explicit effects of the environment. For the QM calculations, density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT have been employed. The quality of the force field parameters adopted in the MD simulations have been carefully analyzed. We have focused the study on the PF5-Y5 polymer. Given the flexibility of the computational approach, we have been able to study this system both in solution (chlorobenzene) and film. First, we have analyzed the structure of the films with focus, for instance, on the tendency to stabilize pi-pi stacking conformations. Then, the dynamics and molecular environment effects on the electronic transitions have been quantified with an improved description of the optical absorption. Finally, through the calculation of the fundamental and optical gaps the exciton binding energies have been estimated. Here, we have considered both the singlet and triplet excitons. The comparisons with experimental results confirm the suitability of the developed s-QM/MD approach, highlighting the importance of properly describing the dynamics and molecular environment effects in the modeling of the electronic properties of OPV materials.

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