Supramolecular Photoactive Systems: holding together a discrete number of molecules and shining light on them

Chemists deal with matter and its transformations. They create chemical species into an infinite variety of combinations, at least until they have imagination. Some of them hold chemical species together trying to gain control on increasing matter complexity. Supermolecules are organized entities resulting from the self-assembly of two or more chemical species held together by intermolecular forces, thus representing a further step towards complexity compared to molecules as the latter do to atoms. Novel properties peculiar of the supramolecular systems thus arise and do not result from the simple superposition of those of the component units. Self-assembly of chemical species by weak, non covalent interactions is a widespread concept to Nature's forms and functions and is attracting increasing interest in artificial systems conceived to control mechanical movements, process information, and harvest sunlight. The present PhD thesis studies some supramolecular photoactive systems that act as antennas capable of collecting incident light and transfer excitation energy or electrons from one molecular component to another.