Heptamethine cyanine dyes in the design of photoactive carbon nanomaterials

Near-infrared (NIR) absorbing nanomaterials, built from anionic heptamethine cyanine dyes and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) or few layer graphene (FLG), are presented. The covalent linkage, by using 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions, results in nanoconjugates that synchronize the properties of both materials as demonstrated by the thoughtful characterization study carried out by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). UV-Vis-NIR and Raman spectroscopies further confirmed the unique electronic structure of the novel photoactive nanomaterials