Invited talk

Incorporating non-hexagonal rings into on-surface synthetized nanostructures
Araceli G. Campaña

Department of Organic Chemistry. University of Granada (UGR)

In the hexagonal network of graphene, non-hexagonal rings such as pentagons, heptagons or even larger rings are found as common defects. The controlled incorporation of defective structures might enable the controlled tuning of the properties of the final material. On surface synthesis (OSS) has demonstrated great potential in the fabrication of novel carbon nanostructures that might be unreachable by wet organic synthesis. A careful design of functionalized monomers synthetized in solution can enable the on- surface construction of novel nanostructures. This synergy between two fields is indispensable and enriching. The incorporation of novel defective monomers prepared by bottom-up solution synthesis might lead to novel carbon nanostructures with interesting properties. In this context, we present our collaborative results in the incorporation of defective polyconjugated hydrocarbon as precursors for the on-surface construction of novel carbon nanostructures. Our results on novel non-benzenoid polymers, [1] (Fig 1, left) chevron graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) from defective precursors [2] (Fig. 1, right) or non-benzenoid nanorings will be shown.

Figure 1: Left: OSS of non-benzenoid conjugated polymers. Right: Tropone moiety stability during OSS of chevron-GNRs.

Acknowledgements: Grant PID2021-127521NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”
[1] A. Jiménez-Martín et al., Chem. Sci. 14, 1403 (2023)
[2] I. R. Marquez et al., Nanomaterials, 12, 488 (2022)