Professor Schuster has terminated active research and closed his laboratory in 2012. Recent work focused on the synthesis of nanoscale electron donor-acceptor systems with potential applications in solar energy storage devices, in which porphyrin and C60 moieties are covalently or mechanically linked, as in rotaxanes and catenanes. Study of their electrochemical and photophysical properties is carried out with outside collaborators. Photoexcitation of these materials in polar organic solvents results in extremely fast electron transfer on the subnanosecond time scale to yield relatively long-lived charge separated radical ion pair (CSRP) states. CSRP lifetimes of microseconds have been achieved, and even longer lifetimes are anticipated for systems currently under study. Photophysical studies on new materials made in the Schuster lab are ongoing in the laboratory of Professor Dirk Guldi in Erlangen, Germany.