Photoluminescence quenching through resonant energy transfer in blends of conjugated polymer with low-molecular acceptor

A model is proposed for photoluminescence quenching due to resonant energy transfer in a blend of a conjugated polymer and a low-molecular energy acceptor. An analytical dependence of the normalized photoluminescence intensity on the acceptor concentration is derived for the case of a homogeneous blend. This dependence can be described by two fitting parameters related to the Förster radii for energy transfer between conjugated segments of the polymer and between the conjugated polymer segment and the energy acceptor. Asymptotic approximations are obtained for the model dependence that make it possible to estimate the contribution from the spatial migration of excitons to the photoluminescence quenching. The proposed model is used to analyze experimental data on the photoluminescence quenching in a blend of the soluble derivative of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) and trinitrofluorenone [13]. The Förster radius for resonant energy transfer between the characteristic conjugated segment of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) and the energy acceptor is determined to be rF = 2.6 ± 0.3 nm.