Wide-field fluorescence images of MEH-PPV (a) before and (b) after solvent vapor annealing. Each bright spot in (b) corresponds to an aggregate to MEH-PPV chains.

The CCI has a new publication available online in ACS Nano.  The article, titled “Unmasking Bulk Exciton Traps and Interchain Electronic Interactions with Single Conjugated Polymer Aggregates,” represents a collaborative effort led by CCI investigators David Vanden Bout (University of Texas at Austin) and Colin Nuckolls (Columbia University), along with their students and postdocs. In this paper, the CCI team used a controlled solvent vapor annealing process to create aggregates composed of single chains of phenylene-vinylene conjugated polymers containing structure-directing features, termed morphons by the CCI. By varying the type of morphon used, the ordering of nanoscale domains in the aggregates and the electronic properties of the aggregates could be controlled. The paper describes an important step toward the development of rationally designed plastic electronic materials with predictable electronic properties.

Check out the article online here, or read the abstract on our Publications page.