Preparation and photoelectrochemical properties of supramolecular assemblies of nanoscale carbon material composites

In this mini-review, we report the recent research results in the molecular assemblies composed of nanoscale carbon materials such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphenes for photoinduced electron transfer and light energy conversion. First, we state fullerene-encapsulated porphyrin nanorods for efficient photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. The useful encapsulation of electron acceptor units within a porphyrin nanotube (reaction cavity) successfully controls the light energy conversion property under visible light irradiation. Then, photoinduced electron transferin self-assembled single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT)/zinc porphyrin (ZnP) hybrids having different band gaps is reported. Furthermore, we discuss the structural and photoelectrochemical properties of similar composite molecular assemblies using stacked-cup carbon nanotubes (SCCNT), carbon nanohorns (CNH) and graphenes.