An ew naphthalenediimide (NDI) derivative linked to triphenylamine (TPA) and fullerene (TPA-NDI-C 60 triad; S3)w as designed, synthesized and characterized. Femtosecond laser transienta bsorption spectralm easurements revealed that fast electron transfer from TPAt ot he singlet-excited state of NDI occurredt of orm ac harge-separated state (TPAC + -NDIC À -C60) with ar ate constanto fa pproximately 10 12 s
À1,f ollowed by the charge-shift reaction from NDIC À to C 60 to produce the charge-separated state (TPAC + -NDI-C 60 C À ) that decayed by back electron transfer with ar ate constant of 4.4 10 9 s À1 (with ac orresponding lifetime of 230 ps). Organic bulk heterojunction solar cells were fabricatedu sing the triad S3 as an n-type semiconductor along with the conventional donorp olymer poly(3-hexylthiophene). The power conversion efficiency reached 3.03 %b efore annealing and 4.85 %a fter annealing in the optimized devices. To rationalize the performance of these organic photovoltaic devices, atomic force microscopy was used to study the morphology of poly(3-hexylthiophene):S3 blend surfaces, which were found to be well interlaced and free from projections, lumps,ori ndentations.