Near-Infrared (>1000 nm) Light-Harvesters: Design, Synthesis and Applications

Organic molecules can absorb or emit light in UV, visible and infra-red (IR) region of solar radiation. Fifty percent of energy of solar radiation lies in the IR region of solar spectrum and extended π-conjugated molecules containing low optical band gap can absorb NIR radiations. Recently IR molecules have grabbed the attention of synthetic chemists. Although only few molecules have been reported so far such as derivative of BODIPY, naphthalimide, porphyrins, perylene, BBT etc., they have shown highest absorbing capacity towards greater than 1100 nm. These compounds have potential applications in different fields, such as for biomedical and optoelectronic applications. In this review, we present different classes of light-harvesters with harvesting range above 1000 nm.