The optical gap of conjugated triply linked porphyrin chains is exceptionally low (similar to 0.5 eV). Hence, such chains are candidates for organic infrared detectors and solar cells harvesting the infrared part of the solar spectrum. However, a low exciton binding energy is required for these applications. From a theoretical analysis of excitons in long metalloporphyrin chains, we demonstrate that the binding energy is much lower than in usual conjugated polymers. Our calculated absorption spectra are in good agreement with measurements. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.