POLARON DYNAMICS. Long-lived photoinduced polaron formation in conjugated polyelectrolyte-fullerene assemblies

The efficiency of biological photosynthesis results from the exquisite organization of photoactive elements that promote rapid movement of charge carriers out of a critical recombination range. If synthetic organic photovoltaic materials could mimic this assembly, charge separation and collection co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScience (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 348; no. 6241; p. 1340
Main Authors Huber, Rachel C, Ferreira, Amy S, Thompson, Robert, Kilbride, Daniel, Knutson, Nicholas S, Devi, Lekshmi Sudha, Toso, Daniel B, Challa, J Reddy, Zhou, Z Hong, Rubin, Yves, Schwartz, Benjamin J, Tolbert, Sarah H
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 19.06.2015
Subjects
Electron Transport
Fullerenes - chemistry
Photosynthesis
Polymers - chemistry
Semiconductors
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Summary:The efficiency of biological photosynthesis results from the exquisite organization of photoactive elements that promote rapid movement of charge carriers out of a critical recombination range. If synthetic organic photovoltaic materials could mimic this assembly, charge separation and collection could be markedly enhanced. We show that micelle-forming cationic semiconducting polymers can coassemble in water with cationic fullerene derivatives to create photoinduced electron-transfer cascades that lead to exceptionally long-lived polarons. The stability of the polarons depends on the organization of the polymer-fullerene assembly. Properly designed assemblies can produce separated polaronic charges that are stable for days or weeks in aqueous solution.
ISSN:1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.aaa6850