Porphyrin-doped carbon nanotubes in sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (NaDDBS) aqueous solution were obtained from NaDDBS/carbon nanotube aqueous dispersions. Several phonon-assisted absorption and recombination processes seem to occur, including one-phonon and two-phonon processes, and remain present even upon porphyrin doping. Power-law scaling of exciton binding energies and environmental dielectric screening effects are used to infer the doping from photoluminescence maps. The dielectric constant of the 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-trimethylammonium phenyl) porphyrin (H(2)TTMAPP) in NaDDBS aqueous solution seems to be higher than the one of NaDDBS/aqueous solution apparently because the counterions have opposite net charges. (c) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.