This review paper gives a brief overview on how the outstanding chemical and physical properties of phthalocyanines and phthalocyanine derivatives are being studied and employed in order to construct state-of-the-art technological devices. In a first instance, a short account on how the nature of the phthalocyanine structure and its organization in condensed phases play an important role in their conducting and ultraviolet-visible absorption properties is presented. Consequently, these basic electronic and photophysical features of phthalocyanines allow us to explain why phthalocyanine-based multicomponent covalent or noncovalent donor-acceptor systems may give rise to very interesting photophysical properties, in particular in terms of their ability to generate very long-lived photoinduced charge-separated states. A concise survey on the organization of these multifunctional systems shows how a profound understanding of the morphology at the nanometer-scale of these phthalocyanine-based molecular materials is needed in order to control their physical properties in condensed phases. All the previously mentioned chemical and physical features combined together led us to the description of the latest attempts at incorporating phthalocyanines into photovoltaic devices for solar energy conversion and onto quantum dots for photodynamic therapy or quantum computing.

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Phthalocyanines are versatile building blocks for fabricating materials at the nanometer scale. These colored macrocycles exhibit fascinating physical properties which arise from their delocalized pi-electronic structure. This article describes why these molecules are targets for different scientific purposes and technological applications.

The recent surge of interest in the control of molecular organization in both the solution state (i.e. self-assembly) and the solid state (i.e. crystal engineering) has led researchers to recognize increasingly the importance of weak noncovalent interactions. The design and synthesis of an efficient molecular construction set are dependent upon a very close interplay between x-ray crystallography and synthetic chemistry. -Stacking interactions between -donors, such as hydroquinone, resorcinol or dioxynaphthalene residues, and -accepting ring systems, such as bipyridinium orextended viologen units, can govern the self-assembly of a variety of complexes and interlocked molecular compounds in both the solid and solution states. Non-covalent bonding interactions (i.e. -interactions) can be considered as information vectors: they define and rule the self-assembly processes that lead to the formation of the desired molecular and supramolecular architectures, and thereafter they still govern the dynamic processes occurring within the selfassembled structures and superstructures. The manner in which such molecules and supermolecules can contribute to an understanding of non-covalent interactions at both structural and superstructural levels is described, with reference to numerous examples of self-assembly processes in synthesis, of dynamic processes in the solution state, and of the packing of molecules and molecular complexes in the solid state.