  We develop a model for charge trapping on conjugated polymer chains using a
continuous representation of the polymer. By constraining the motion to along
the chain, we find that kinks along the chain serve as points of attraction and
can induce localization and spontaneous buckling of the chain. We implement
this in a model system of a conjugated polymer donor and fullerene acceptor to
mimic a polymer based photovoltaic system. We find that geometric fluctuations
of the polymer give rise to deep potential energy traps at kinks which are
often stronger than the Coulomb interaction between the electron and hole.
