Light emitting polymer nanofibers: energy transfer, waveguiding and photostability

This paper reports on the realisation of polymer nanofibers, emitting in the VIS-NIR (450 nm-900 nm) spectral region, by electrospinning. Fibers are made by light-emitting conjugated polymers and polymethylmethacrilate (PMMA) doped with organic dyes. Nanofibers made by conjugated polymers exhibit photoluminescence peaks in the whole visible range, depending on the exploited polymer, and self-waveguiding of the emitted light with typical loss coefficients of 10³ cm^-1. This paper also investigates the optical properties of blends of conjugated polymers that are characterized by efficient Forster non radiative energy transfer, i.e. the dipole-dipole non radiative transfer of the excitation from a donor to an acceptor polymer.