Reversible electronic energy transfer: a means to govern excited-state properties of supramolecular systems

A strategy to manage energy, following light absorption, and modulate excited-state properties, including luminescence lifetimes of multicomponent photoactive systems, is presented. The intervening mechanism, which is illustrated through the use of bi-/multi-chromophoric molecules, relies on energy shuttling between different matched chromophores under kinetic and thermodynamic control. This tutorial review is destined to show supramolecular and materials chemists, spectroscopists and nanoscientists how to harness reversible electronic energy transfer in a predictable fashion in designer molecule-based systems.