The development of lightweight, flexible polymeric solar cells which utilize nanostructured materials has been investigated. Incorporation of quantum dots (QDs) and single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) into a poly(3-octylthiophene)-(P3OT) composite, has been shown to facilitate exciton dissociation and carrier transport in a properly structured device. Optimization towards an ideal electron acceptor for polymeric solar cells that exhibits high electron affinity and high electrical conductivity has been proposed in the form of QD-SWNT complexes. Specifically, the synthesis of CdSe-aminoethanethiol-SWNT complexes has been performed, with confirmation by microscopy (SEM, TEM, and AFM) and spectroscopy (FT-IR and optical absorption). Polymer composites containing these complexes in P3OT have been used to fabricate solar cells which show limited efficiency due to recombination and surface effects, but an open-circuit voltage (V-OC) of 0.75 V. However, evaluation of the optical absorption spectra for these nanomaterial-polymeric composites has shown a marked enhancement in the ability to capture the available irradiance of the air mass zero (AM0) spectrum. (c) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.