Tailoring the properties of carbon nanotubes by functionalizing their side-wall is one of the key challenges towards the realization of carbon nanotube-based optoelectronic devices. This technique aims at combining the remarkable transport properties of the tube with the versatility of the optical properties of organic molecules. Herein, we
achieve p-stacking functionalization of nanotubes with hydrosoluble
porphyrins. These complexes show a total quenching of the porphyrin fluorescence,
while the photoluminescence of the nanotubes is enhanced when the excitation is
tuned in resonance with the Soret band of the porphyrins. This provides efficient excitation transfer within the nanotube/porphyrin complex, which corresponds
to the implementation of a key functionnality: an organic graft acting as an antenna
and the nanotube acting as a collector......

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