Engineering the Color and the Donor-Acceptor Behavior in Nanowires: Blend Versus Coaxial Geometry

Abstract

The blending or the bilayering of two complementary species are the dominant methods for in-solution-processed thin film devices to get a strong donor-acceptor behavior. They propose opposite strategies for the respective arrangement of the two species, a central point for energy and/or charge transfer. In this work, we propose to engineer at the scale of the exciton diffusion length the organization of a donor (poly(vinyl-carbazole), PVK) and an acceptor (poly(para-phenylene-vinylene), PPV) in a nanowire geometry. A two-step template strategy was used to fabricate coaxial nanowires with PPV and PVK, alternatively as the core or the shell material. Their stationary and time-resolved photoluminescence properties were investigated and compared to the case of PVK-PPV blend. Their respective characteristics are direct evidences of the dominant mechanisms responsible for the emission properties.