Recently, a breakthrough in developing artificial Light Harvesting Complexes (LHCs) has been achieved through combining the self-organization tendency of surfactants with the unique property of J-aggregating organic dyes having coherent exciton migration similar to the natural LHCs. Depending on the chemical structure, the presence of additives or the conditions of sample preparation the amphiphilic dye aggregates show different packing motifs. Correlating the optical properties of the aggregates with their supramolecular architecture allows to deduce consistent molecular models.

Selected publications:

H. v. Berlepsch and C. Böttcher (2002)
Network superstructure of pseudoisocyanin J-aggregates in aqueous sodium chloride solution revealed by cryo-TEM.
J. Phys. Chem. B 106, 3146 - 3150.

H. v. Berlepsch, S. Kirstein and C. Böttcher (2002)
Effect of alcohols on J-aggregation of a carbocyanine dye.
Langmuir 18 (20), 7699 - 7705.

H. v. Berlepsch, S. Kirstein and C. Böttcher (2003)
Controlling the helicity of J-aggregates by chiral alcohols.
J. Phys. Chem. B. 107, 9646 - 9654.

H. von Berlepsch, S. Kirstein, R. Hania, C. Didraga, A. Pugžlys and C. Böttcher (2003)
Poly(vinyl alcohol)-induced separation of ropelike J-aggregates into individual tubules.
J. Phys. Chem. 107, 14179 - 14184.

H. v. Berlepsch, S. Kirstein and C. Böttcher (2004)
Supramolecular Structure of J-Aggregates of a Sulfonate Substituted Amphiphilic Carbocyanine Dye in Solution: Methanol-Induced Ribbon-toTubule Transformation.
J. Phys. Chem. B 108, 18725 - 18733.

H. v. Berlepsch, S. Kirstein, R. Hania, A. Pugžlys and C. Böttcher (2007)
Modification of the nanoscale structure of the J-aggregate of a sulfonate-substituted amphiphilic carbocyanine dye through incorporation of surface-active additives.
J. Phys. Chem. B 111, 1701 - 1711.

D. M. Eisele, H. v. Berlepsch, C. Böttcher, K. J. Stevenson, D. A. Vanden Bout, S. Kirstein and J. P. Rabe (2010)
Photoinitiated Growth of Sub-7 nm Silver Nanowires within a Chemically Active Organic Nanotubular Template
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132, 2104-2105.

B. Schade, A. K. Singh, V. Wycisk, J. L. Cuellar-Camacho, H. von Berlepsch, R. Haag and C. Bottcher (2020)
Stereochemistry-Controlled Supramolecular Architectures of New Tetrahydroxy-Functionalised Amphiphilic Carbocyanine Dyes
Chemistry 26 (30), 6919-6934.

A. K. Singh, B. Schade, V. Wycisk, C. Böttcher, R. Haag, H. von Berlepsch, (2021)
Aggregation of Amphiphilic Carbocyanines: Fluorination Favors Cylindrical Micelles over Bilayered Tubes
The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 125 (37), 10538-10550.