A ternary system of quantum dot - Porphyrin - Semiconducting organic nanoparticles for light harvesting

•Light harvesting in nanoscale system is designed by encapsulation of QD, porphyrin in PVK nanoparticles.•QDs will absorb the visible light as an antenna material, followed by funneling of the exciton to an acceptor molecule which is confined in polymer nanoparticles in order to enhance their efficiency.•The energy transfer enhances from 68% to 86% by incorporating porphyrin molecule into QD doped PVK nanoparticles.

Inorganic-organic semiconductor hybrid nanostructures remain a frontier area of research to design optoelectronic, photovoltaic and light harvesting devices because of efficient energy or charge transfer process. Here, we have designed a system where inorganic semiconducting nanocrystals (Cd0.52Zn0.48S) are encapsulated into semiconducting organic poly (9-vinylcarbazole) [PVK] nanoparticles with 5-(4-aminophenyl)-10,15,20-triphenyl-21,23H-porphyrin (APTPP) molecule. Steady state and time resolved spectroscopic study reveal the efficient energy transfer from host PVK nanoparticle to QD and prophyrin molecule which is found to be cascade energy transfer. The energy transfer enhances from 68% to 86% by incorporating porphyrin molecule into QD doped PVK nanoparticles. This high efficiency of cascade energy transfer opens further prospects to design new porphyrin and quantum dot based functional polymer nanoparticles for the application in efficient light harvesting system and other photodriven devices.

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