Synthesis of Donor−Acceptor Multiblock Copolymers Incorporating Fullerene Backbone Repeat Units

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The synthesis of the first example of a block copolymer based on a polymer using fullerene as a backbone repeat subunit is demonstrated. A facile route incorporating the electron acceptor and high fullerene content polymer, poly{(1,4-fullerene)- alt -[1,4-dimethylene-2,5-bis(cyclohexylmethyl ether)phenylene]} (PFDP), with the archetypal electron donor, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), into a multiblock copolymer (MBC) structure is presented. α,ω-Bromomethyl-PFDP was prepared by atom-transfer radical addition polymerization (ATRAP) and then reacted with α,ω-phenol-P3HT via a Williamson condensation to yield the MBCs. The lengths of the electron-acceptor and donor polymer blocks could be selected so that the resulting solid state domains were of a size appropriate to organic solar cells. Also it was found that the MBCs gave a wide range of macro-structures, from micelles to well-defined wires, depending on the preparation conditions.