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Nanoribbons with Nonalternant Topology from Fusion of Polyazulene: Carbon Allotropes beyond Graphene.

Qitang FanDaniel Martin-JimenezDaniel EbelingClaudio K KrugLea BrechmannCorinna KohlmeyerGerhard HiltWolfgang HieringerAndré SchirmeisenJ Michael Gottfried
Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2019)
Various two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotropes with nonalternant topologies, such as pentaheptites and phagraphene, have been proposed. Predictions indicate that these metastable carbon polymorphs, which contain odd-numbered rings, possess unusual (opto)electronic properties. However, none of these materials has been achieved experimentally due to synthetic challenges. In this work, by using on-surface synthesis, nanoribbons of the nonalternant graphene allotropes, phagraphene and tetra-penta-hepta(TPH)-graphene, have been obtained by dehydrogenative C-C coupling of 2,6-polyazulene chains. These chains were formed in a preceding reaction step via on-surface Ullmann coupling of 2,6-dibromoazulene. Low-temperature scanning probe microscopies with CO-functionalized tips and density functional theory calculations have been used to elucidate their structural properties. The proposed synthesis of nonalternant carbon nanoribbons from the fusion of synthetic line-defects may pave the way for large-area preparation of novel 2D carbon allotropes.
Keyphrases
  • density functional theory
  • room temperature
  • molecular dynamics
  • mass spectrometry
  • molecular dynamics simulations
  • ionic liquid
  • living cells
  • single molecule
  • liquid chromatography