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Article
Conformations and torsional potentials of poly (3-hexylthiophene) oligomers: Density functional calculations up to the dodecamer
Polymer Science Faculty Research
  • Mesfin Tsige, The University of Akron
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2012
Abstract

Fully optimized conformations of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) oligomers up to the decamer and torsional potentials up to the dodecamer (302 atoms) are investigated by large-scale density functional calculations (B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p)). Fully relaxed P3HT oligomers were investigated at a variety of conformational minima, many with skeletal structures far from planarity. The lowest energy conformations found have each hexyl group ≈74° out of plane and each backbone twist angle out of plane by ≈47°. The energies of these non-planar conformations are lower than that of the planar reference geometry by ≈30 meV per monomer. Backbone torsional potentials and hexyl torsional potentials converge with oligomer length by the octamer. A wide variety of oligomer conformations are sufficiently close in energy (∼kT) that the actual conformations found in a condensed phase will be determined primarily by intermolecular interactions, and substantial conformational disorder might be expected in the heterogenous environment of practical solar devices.

Citation Information
Mesfin Tsige. "Conformations and torsional potentials of poly (3-hexylthiophene) oligomers: Density functional calculations up to the dodecamer" (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mesfin_tsige/54/