Efficient light-harvesting layers of homeotropically aligned porphyrin derivatives

Dye-sensitized solar cells are at present based on a nanostructured interpenetrating network of dye and semiconductor, which overcomes the prerequisite of a long exciton diffusion length; however, this also hampers charge-carrier transport. This work demonstrates that efficient light-induced charge separation is not necessarily only obtained in the case of a nanostructured network, but can also be achieved in a bilayer configuration (see figure).