Star‐Shaped Light‐Harvesting Polymers Incorporating an Energy Cascade

Abstract

A star in the making: Star-shaped block copolymers have been synthesized by reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization to obtain light-harvesting systems with an energy gradient from the periphery to the core. Excitation-energy transfer in the block copolymers occurs through an energy cascade from the excited acenaphthenyl units to the coumarin chromophores and hence to the RuII complex core (red sphere: see picture).