Study of Energy Transfer in Aqueously Dispersed Polymeric Nanoparticles and Their Use for Photovoltaic Applications

In this study, polymeric nanoparticles dispersed in an aqueous medium were synthesized using the miniemulsion technique. The nanoparticles were composed of copolymer F8T2 or the homopolymer MDMO-PPV and a mixture of both and were investigated to unravel the interaction between these materials. The results showed that, by decreasing the distance between the nanostructured materials, a higher Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) was observed from F8T2 to MDMO-PPV. When the nanoparticles were applied as an active layer in organic photovoltaic devices, the resulted enhanced of energy transfer could generate more free charge carriers, increasing the short circuit current density, influencing the increase in the efficiency of these devices.