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A fast scheme to calculate electronic couplings between P3HT polymer units using diabatic orbitals for charge transfer dynami...

by Tao Yu, Florence Fabunmi, Jingsong J Huang, Bobby G Sumpter, Jacek Jakowski
Publication Type
Journal
Journal Name
Journal of Computational Chemistry
Publication Date
Page Numbers
532 to 542
Volume
40
Issue
2

We propose a fast and accurate calculation method to compute the electronic couplings between molecular units in a thiophene‐ring‐based polymer chain mimicking a real organic semiconducting polymer, poly(3‐hexylthiophene). Through a unit block diabatization scheme, the method employed minimal number of diabatic orbitals to compute the site energies and electronic couplings, which were validated by comparing with benchmark density functional theory calculations. In addition, by using the obtained electronic couplings, a quantum dynamics simulation was carried out to propagate a hole initially localized in a thiophene‐ring unit of the polymer chain. This work establishes a simple, efficient, and robust means for the simulation of electron or hole transfer processes in organic semiconducting materials, an important capability for study and understanding of the class of organic optoelectronic and photovoltaic materials.