Electron and hole transport to trap groups at the ends of conjugated polyfluorenes

Polyfluorenes (pF) were synthesized having anthraquinone (AQ) or naphtylimide (NI) end caps that trap electrons or di- p-tolylaminophenyl (APT2) caps that trap holes. The average lengths of the pF chains in these molecules varied from 7 to 30 nm. End capping was found not to be complete in these molecules so that some were without caps. Electrons or holes were injected into these polymers in solution by pulse radiolysis. Following attachment, the charges migrated to the end cap traps in times near 2 ns in pF12AQ or 5 ns in pF35NI. From these observations, electron mobilities for transport along single chains to the end caps in THF solution were determined to be smaller by a factor of 100 than those observed by microwave conductivity. Despite this, the mobilities were sufficiently large to provide encouragement to the use of such single chains in solar photovoltaics. Most charges were observed to transport over substantial distances in these polymers, but 23, 18, and 37% of the charges attached to pFNI, pFAQ, and pFAPT2, respectively, were trapped in the pF chains and decayed by slower bimolecular reactions. For pFAQ and pFAPT2, all of the trapped charges were accounted for by estimates of the fraction of molecules having no end cap traps. For pF35NI, 23% of the attached electrons were found to be trapped in the chains, but only 4% of chains were expected to have no end caps. This could indicate some trapping by kinks or other defects but may just reflect uncertainties in the capping of this long polymer. When the charges reach the trap groups, their spectra have no features of pF(*-) or pF(*+), nor do the principal bands of the trapped ions resemble spectra of the radical ions of isolated trap molecules. The optical absorption spectra are rather dominated by new bands identified as charge-transfer transitions, which probably reinject electrons or holes into the pF chains. The energies of those bands correlate well with measured redox potentials.