Mechanochemical Cyclodehydrogenation with Elemental Copper: An Alternative Pathway toward Nanographenes

Elemental copper can be utilized to generate C-C bonds in order to synthesize nanographenes in a mechanochemical environment. Utilizing the solvent-free environment of a ball mill, we present a facile and highly sustainable concept for the internal C-C coupling in oligo-phenyls on the example of triphenylene and extend it to the transformation of hexaphenylbenzene into hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene as a benchmark nanographene.