Nature's highly efficient light-harvesting antennae, such as those found in green sulfur bacteria, consist of supramolecular building blocks that self-assemble into a hierarchy of close-packed structures. In an effort to mimic the fundamental processes that govern nature's efficient systems, it is important to elucidate the role of each level of hierarchy: from molecule, to supramolecular building block, to close-packed building blocks. Here, we study the impact of hierarchical structure. We present a model system that mirrors nature's complexity: cylinders self-assembled from cyanine-dye molecules. Our work reveals that even though close-packing may alter the cylinders' soft mesoscopic structure, robust delocalized excitons are retained: Internal order and strong excitation-transfer interactions-prerequisites for efficient energy transport-are both maintained. Our results suggest that the cylindrical geometry strongly favors robust excitons; it presents a rational design that is potentially key to nature's high efficiency, allowing construction of efficient light-harvesting devices even from soft, supramolecular materials.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 2. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 21 January 2016.
All research outputs
#22,715,501
of 34,363,559 outputs
Outputs from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#106,057
of 118,931 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#167,247
of 272,973 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
#778
of 918 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,363,559 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 33rd percentile – i.e., 33% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 118,931 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.1. This one is in the 10th percentile – i.e., 10% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 272,973 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 38th percentile – i.e., 38% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 918 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 15th percentile – i.e., 15% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
