Theory of photoinduced charge transfer in weakly coupled donor-acceptor conjugated polymers: application to an MEH-PPV: CN-PPV pair Original Research Article

In a pair of coupled donor-acceptor conjugated polymer chains, it is possible for an exciton photoexcited on either polymer to decay into a hole in the donor polymerʹs valence band and an electron in the conduction band of the acceptor polymer. We calculate the corresponding exciton decay rate and its dependence on inter-polymer distance. For a pair of derivatives of poly(phenylene vinylene), PPV, specifically poly[2-methoxy, 5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4 PPV], MEH-PPV, and poly(2,5-hexyloxy p-phenylene cyanovinylene), CN-PPV, at a separation of 6 Å the characteristic decay time is 2.2 ps, whereas at 4 Å it is ∼ 50 fs.