Fullerene Hybrid Nanomaterials and Their Application in Photovoltaics

Fullerene-based micro/nanomaterials have attracted special interest because of their unique chemical and physical properties and their possible application in the fields of materials and medical sciences. Since fullerene acts as a good electron acceptor, functionalizing fullerene-based micro/nanomaterials with an electron donor are expected to lead to the development of novel multifunctional fullerene hybrid nanomaterials. This chapter describes recent advances and current directions in preparation and application of multicomponent hybrid nanomaterials that are built on fullerene-based nanomaterials. Fullerenes form a wide variety of donor–acceptor complexes with different classes of organic and organometallic donors. Porphyrins are very well known and represent an important class of organic compounds because they combine excellent light harvesting characteristics with strong electron-donating properties. The successful preparation of hybrid nanoarchitectures with unique electronic and optical characteristics using a very simple solution method can be viewed as an important stepping-stone toward the fabrication of novel nanometer-scale devices.