Light-induced X,W-band Electron Spin Resonance study of double-crystalline donor-acceptor P3HT-b-PPerAcr block copolymers in solid thin films

• The effective charge separation process observation due to intramolecular electron transfer in donor-acceptor block copolymer.
• A competition for the PPerAcr acceptor in BCPs from other effective fullerene derivatives used as additives to BCPs has not been observed.
• b-PPerAcr anion radical registration and description by W-band ESR.
• The confirmation of insignificant b-PPerAcr block π-stacks ordering in solar cells film by W-band ESR.

Light-induced X,W-band Electron Spin Resonance (LESR) study of double-crystalline donor-acceptor block copolymers (BCPs) comprised of poly-3-hexylthiophene as the donor and poly-perylene bisimide acrylate as the acceptor segments is presented. It is suggested that, while the intrinsic light-induced charge separation efficiency in the BCPs registered by LESR could be more efficient than in bulk heterojunction solar cells based on the P3HT/PCBM blends, the photovoltaic performance of the BCPs is limited significantly by the incorrect orientation of crystalline π-stack morphology of (poly-perylene bisimide acrylate) domains.