High intrachain order promotes triplet formation from recombination of long-lived polarons in poly(3-hexylthiophene) J-aggregate nanofibers.

Photoluminescence (PL) of single poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) J-aggregate nanofibers (NFs) exhibits strong quenching under intensity-modulated pulsed excitation. Initial PL intensities (I(0)) decay to steady-state levels (ISS) typically within ∼ 1-10 μs, and large quenching depths (I(0)/I(SS) >2) are observed for ∼ 70% of these NFs. Similar studies of polymorphic, H-aggregate type P3HT NFs show much smaller PL quenching depths (I(0)/I(SS) ≤ 1.