Bottom-up Solution Synthesis of Graphene Nanoribbons with Precisely Engineered Nanopores

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Contributors

Abstract

The incorporation of nanopores into graphene nanostructures has been demonstrated as an efficient tool in tuning their band gaps and electronic structures. However, precisely embedding the uniform nanopores into graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) at the atomic level remains underdeveloped especially for in-solution synthesis due to the lack of efficient synthetic strategies. Herein we report the first case of solution-synthesized porous GNR (pGNR) with a fully conjugated backbone via the efficient Scholl reaction of tailor-made polyphenylene precursor (P1) bearing pre-installed hexagonal nanopores. The resultant pGNR features periodic subnanometer pores with a uniform diameter of 0.6 nm and an adjacent-pores-distance of 1.7 nm. To solidify our design strategy, two porous model compounds (1 a, 1 b) containing the same pore size as the shortcuts of pGNR, are successfully synthesized. The chemical structure and photophysical properties of pGNR are investigated by various spectroscopic analyses. Notably, the embedded periodic nanopores largely reduce the π-conjugation degree and alleviate the inter-ribbon π–π interactions, compared to the nonporous GNRs with similar widths, affording pGNR with a notably enlarged band gap and enhanced liquid-phase processability.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202305737
Number of pages8
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume62(2023)
Issue number35
Publication statusPublished - 28 Aug 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 37335764

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Bandgap Engineering, Graphene Nanoribbons, In Solution, Porous, Precision Synthesis