Nanographenes Out of Planarity

The combination of different distortion motifs in nanographenes and polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons has been the focus of significant attention during the last decade. The continual discovery of multiple carbon allotropes has fueled the field. A plethora of research groups around the globe are engaged in developing methods for the preparation of discrete graphene or fullerene fragments and new carbon allotropes. The goal is to fully understand the structure-property relationships in these systems. Herein, we present our journey and contributions to the field, from the development of a synthetic methodology towards functionalized heptagon-containing hexa-peri-hexabenzo-coronenes through the preparation of saddle-helix hybrid nanographenes, the study of heptagon-containing cumulenic and open-shell systems, nanographenes embedded with higher order carbocycles, and the study of their electronic properties on-surface and by single-molecule conductance.

Automated summary

The combination of different distortion motifs in nanographenes and polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons has been the focus of significant attention. Research groups are developing methods for preparing graphene or fullerene fragments and new carbon allotropes to understand the structure-property relationships in these systems.