Interfacing strong electron acceptors with single wall carbon nanotubes

The complementary use of steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy in combination with electrochemistry and microscopy are indicative of mutual interactions between semiconducting SWNTs and a water-soluble strong electron acceptor, i.e., perylenediimide. Significant is the stability and the strong electronic coupling of the perylenediimide/SWNT electron donor-acceptor hybrids. Several spectroscopic and spectroelectrochemical techniques, i.e., Raman, absorption, and fluorescence, confirmed that distinct ground- and excited-state interactions occur and that kinetically and spectroscopically well characterized radical ion pair states form within a few picoseconds.