Driving charge separation for hybrid solar cells: photo-induced hole transfer in conjugated copolymer and semiconductor nanoparticle assembliesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Material synthesis, instrumental techniques, cyclic voltammograms, dynamic light scattering and Zeta-potential results. See DOI: 10.1039/c3cp55210a

This work reports on the use of an internal electrostatic field to facilitate charge separation at inorganic-organic interfaces, analogous to those in hybrid solar cells. Systematic charge transfer studies show that the donor-acceptor charge transfer rate is highly sensitive to the direction of the internal electric field. This work shows that the charge transfer rate is sensitive to the internal field between a conjugated copolymer and a semiconductor nanoparticle.