Charge separation and photovoltaic conversion in polymer composites with internal donor/acceptor heterojunctions

The photosensitivity of semiconducting polymers can be enhanced by blending donor and acceptor polymers to optimize photoinduced charge separation. We describe a novel phase-separated polymer blend (composite) made with poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene], MEH-PPV, as donor and cyano-PPV, CN-PPV, as acceptor. The photoluminescence and electroluminescence of both component polymers are quenched in the blend, indicative of rapid and efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs with electrons on the acceptor and holes on the donor. Diodes made with such a composite semiconducting polymer as the photosensitive medium show promising photovoltaic characteristics with carrier collection efficiency of 5% electrons/photon and energy conversion efficiency of 0.9%, ∼20 times larger than in diodes made with pure MEH-PPV and ∼100 times larger than in diodes made with CN-PPV. The photosensitivity and the quantum yield increase with reverse bias voltage, to 0.3 A/W and 80% electrons/photon respectively at −10 V, comparable to results obtained from photodiodes made with inorganic semiconductors.