Semiconducting polymers are useful in a wide range of applications, including solar cells, light emitting diodes, sensors and field effect transistors.  One of the main problems with these materials is low electronic conductivity; one way to increase this is by using self-organization to produce straight polymer chains.  The novel amphiphilic polymer in this study, poly(fluorene-alt-thiophene) (PFT), was designed to form rod-like micelles in water and it also forms a gel network at modest concentrations. Here we analyze the self-assembled structure of the solution and gel using small angle x-ray scattering, rheology and optical studies.  To fabricate a solar cell PFT must be combined with an appropriate water soluble electron acceptor, in this case we use C60-N,N-dimethylpyrrolidinium  iodide, which appears to co-assemble with PFT.  The combined system shows long-lived charge separated species in the gel following photo-excitation.  The combination of a bridged gel network with efficient charge transfer is a promising architecture for a solar cell device.

Optimizing nanoscale architecture in semiconducting polymers

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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