Light harvesting with non covalent carbon nanotube/porphyrin compounds

[Display omitted] ► New synthesis method for stable non covalent porphyrin/nanotube compounds. ► Ultra-efficient energy transfer from the chromophore to the nanotube. ► Ultrafast investigation of the energy transfer pathway. We present recent developments in the synthesis and in the functional study of non covalently bound porphyrin/carbon nanotube compounds. The issue of the chemical stability of non covalent compounds is tackled by means of micelle assisted chemistry. The non covalent functionalization allows to preserve the electronic integrity of the nanotubes that display bright NIR luminescence. In the same time, the coupling between the subunits is very strong and leads to efficient energy transfer and PL quenching of the chromophore. This transfer occurs on a subpicosecond time-scale and leads to a near 100% efficiency. It allows to uniformly excite a whole set of chiral species with a single wavelength excitation. Insight into the transfer mechanism is gained by means of transient absorption spectroscopy.