Nanographene – A Scaffold of Two‐Dimensional Materials

• Published in: Chemical record Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. e202100257 - n/a
• Main Authors: Sekiya, Ryo, Haino, Takeharu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2022
• Subjects: Chemistry; Crystals; Diameters; Functional groups; Functional materials; graphene; graphene oxide; graphene quantum dot; nanocarbon; nanographene; Optical materials; Organic chemistry; Polymer chemistry; Polymers; Scaffolds; Species; Two dimensional materials; graphene oxide; nanographene; nanocarbon; graphene quantum dot; graphene
• ISSN: 1527-8999; 1528-0691
• DOI: 10.1002/tcr.202100257

Substances can be divided into 0D to 3D species based on the number of repeating units (atom, ion, and molecule) and their arrangements in space (point, linear, layer, and solid). Discrete substances belong to 0D species, polymers are examples of 1D species, and molecular crystals are 3D species. Most of the substances belong to one of these species. On the other hand, those categorized into 2D species wherein the repeating units organize a layer are less explored. 2D species have a surface and edges. The incorporation of these structural features into a molecular design can realize multifunctionalized systems that are difficult to achieve by conventional organic synthesis. The development of 2D species is, therefore, the frontier of organic, inorganic, and polymer chemistry. Nanographenes (NGs) are suitable scaffolds for realizing 2D species due to several factors, such as chemical stability and oxygen‐containing functional groups on the surface and on the edge, allowing postsynthetic modifications. Our group has utilized NGs with tens of nanometers in diameters for developing 2D species. Carboxy groups on the edge enable us to install various substituents into NGs, offering NG‐based functional materials. These studies demonstrate that the integration of NGs with organic chemistry can widen the scope of their applications other than optical materials that are a main application of NGs. We introduce our recent studies on the development of NG‐based functional materials realized by postsynthetic modifications. We hope that this account will contribute to the development of the chemistry of 2D species. Nanographenes are graphene fragments with a few to tens of nanometers in diameters. Because of their vast surface, nanographenes can be utilized as scaffolds of two‐dimensional species that have not been well studied compared to substances belonging to 0D, 1D, and 3D species. This account describes the development of nanographene‐based 2D species by postsynthetic modifications.