Two series of P3HT-based polymer solar cell (PSCs) only with different electron acceptors PC70BM or PC60BM were investigated under the same conditions. The PSCs with PC70BM as the electron acceptor exhibit a relatively strong and broad absorption in the visible range and high external quantum efficiency, which results in a relatively high open circuit voltage (V-oc) of 0.62 V. short circuit current density (J(sc)) of 11.85 mA/cm(2) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.52%. The PSCs with PC60BM as the electron acceptor have a relatively low V, of 0.58 V, J(sc) of 10.68 mA/cm(2) and PCE of 3.02% due to the weak absorption of PC60BM in the visible light range. The function of PC70BM instead of PC60BM as electron acceptor could be summarized as follows: i) the strong absorption PC70BM in the visible range results in much more photon harvesting; ii) the relatively low electron mobility and relatively big size of PC70BM molecule influences the charge transporting and phase separation. The ultimate performances of PSCs are codetermined by the photon harvesting, exciton dissociation, charge carrier transport and collection. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.