Long-range exciton transport in conjugated polymer nanofibers prepared by seeded growth

A longer exciton pathway Organic semiconductors typically exhibit exciton diffusion lengths on the order of tens of nanometers. Jin et al. prepared nanofibers from block polymers consisting of emissive polyfluorene cores surrounded by coronas of polyethylene glycol and polythiophene (see the Perspective by Holmes). Excitons generated in the polyfluorene cannot enter the polyethylene glycol layer and so diffuse more than 200 nm. This distance can be tuned by varying the length of the polyethylene glycol—a feature that could potentially be exploited in the development of organic devices such as photovoltaics. Science , this issue p. 897 ; see also p. 854