Highly efficient energy and charge transfer in thin self-assembled multilayered polymer films

Abstract

We report the synthesis and characterization of multilayer self-assembled polymer films made from a water-soluble conjugated polymer, poly(2,5-methoxy-propyloxy sulfonate phenylene vinylene) (MPS-PPV). We observe a red shift of both the absorption and fluorescence spectra with increasing numbers of active MPS-PPV layers. We attribute this red shift to changing polymer conformation and efficient energy transfer. Upon adding a water-soluble C 60 or C 60 -VBA copolymer top layer, the luminescence spectrum is strongly quenched due to charge transfer. The estimated charge transfer quantum efficiency from PL quenching is ∼95%. We discuss in detail the unidirectional energy transfer followed by charge transfer in the self-assembled multilayered films.