High-Yield Generation of Triplet Excited States by an Efficient Sequential Photoinduced Process from Energy Transfer to Singlet Fission in Pentacene-Modified CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots

Singlet fission (SF) is expected to improve photoenergy conversion systems by generating two electrons from one photon. Pentacenes meet the energy-level matching condition between a singlet and two triplet states: [E(S₁)≥2E(T₁)]. However, the molar absorption coefficients of pentacenes in the approximately 400–500 nm region are limited, whereas quantum dots, such as CdSe/ZnS (QD), possess high fluorescence quantum yields and particle-size-dependent fluorescence wavelengths. Thus, a combination of QD (D) and pentacene (A) provides a system of both an enhanced light-harvesting efficiency throughout the solar spectrum and an efficient conversion of the harvested light into the triplet states by SF. Based on these points, m-phenylene-bridged triisopropylsilane (TIPS)-pentacene dimer-functionalized QD (denoted as m-(Pc)₂-QD) was synthesized to examine the sequential photoinduced process from energy transfer to SF. In femtosecond transient absorption measurements, initial energy transfer from QD to pentacene (quantum yield: 87 %) and subsequent SF were efficiently observed. The quantum yield of triplet states of pentacene units (Φ_Τ) based on the excitation of QD attained is 160±6.7 %.