Dye Assemblies for Artifical Photosynthesis and Photovoltaics

Research on dye molecules has been continuing to be at the forefront of new developments in chemistry owing to their versatile functional properties associated with -conjugation. On a supramolecular level, appropriately controlled spatial arrangement of dyes enables pivotal functions in nature, the most intriguing examples being provided by the light-harvesting systems of purple and green bacteria which contain a large number of chlorophyll and carotene chromophores organized in cyclic arrays or tubular architectures by non-covalent interactions. During the last few years, we have intensively investigated the organization of merocyanine, chlorin, squaraine, and perylene bisimide dyes by non-covalent forces into desirable nanoscale architectures as well as liquid-crystalline and crystalline solid state materials. In this lecture, I will provide an overview on our achievements in the preparation of defined dye assemblies and their suitability as building blocks for artificial photosynthesis and photovoltaics. ^1-4

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