Biomimetic Nanoarchitectures for Light Harvesting: Self-Assembly of Pyropheophorbide-Peptide Conjugates

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Abstract
The biological light-harvesting process offers an unlimited source of inspiration. The high level of control, adaptation capability, and efficiency challenge humankind to create artificial bio-mimicking nanoarchitectures with the same performances to respond to our energy needs. Here, in the extensive search for design principles at the base of efficient artificial light-harvesters, an approach based on self-assembly of pigment-peptide conjugates is proposed. The solvent-driven and controlled aggregation of the peptide moieties promotes the formation of a dense network of interacting pigments, giving rise to an excitonic network characterized by intense and spectrally wide absorption bands. The ultrafast dynamics of the nanosystems studied through 2D electronic spectroscopy reveals that the excitation energy is funneled in an ultrafast time range (hundreds of femtoseconds) to a manifold of long-living dark states, thus suggesting the considerable potentiality of the systems as efficient harvesters.
Funding Information
  • Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universit? e della Ricerca (2015XBZ5YA, 2017A4XRCA)

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