Long-lived photoinduced charge separation for solar cell applications in phthalocyanine–fulleropyrrolidine dyad thin filmsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: plots of the refractive index, extinction coefficient and dielectric function of Pc-C60. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/jm/b2/b212621d/

The photophysical properties of a new dyad molecule composed of a covalently linked Zn-phthalocyanine (antenna/donor) and a C60 derivative (acceptor) have been investigated. We report experimental evidence of long-lived charge separation in the solid state with a lifetime several orders of magnitude higher than in solution. Such a long lifetime, unusual for phthalocyanine–fullerene dyads, is the basis for possible photovoltaic applications. A first demonstration of a working solar cell using phthalocyanine–fullerene dyads as the active material is presented. Though the power conversion efficiency under simulated solar illumination of 80 mW cm−2 is found to be moderate (0.02%), it is an encouraging result for application of C60 dyad molecules to photovoltaics.