The aim of this Letter is to show the influence of several new polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) derivatives, covering surfaces of lead(II) sulfide semiconductor quantum dots, on optical properties of nanocrystals, especially on exciton lifetimes. The collected data exhibit strong dependence of the excited states lifetimes in PbS nanocrystals on the distance between the polymer chain and the quantum dot. It turns out that the presence of PPV derivatives stabilizes the created exciton, which is manifested by the increase of its lifetime. Anyway this effect weakens in PPV derivatives with longer side chains separating nanocrystal from the main conductive chain. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.