Controlling Chirality and Optical Properties of Artificial Antenna Systems with Self‐Assembling Porphyrins

In a biomimetic approach, the same groups that are responsible for the self-assembly of bacteriochlorophylls in the natural antenna systems of green photosynthetic bacteria, have been engineered onto desired positions of fully synthetic porphyrins. The architecture of the monomeric building block determines both the chirality and the optical properties of the supramolecular assembly, depicted right, as a tetramer. Neither the self-assembly, nor the chemisorption onto titania nanoparticles quenches the fluorescence of the aggregates, thus they may be of use in dye-photosensitized solar cells.