1. Graphene Nanoribbons: Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Nanostructured Materials C. Scott Hartley, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Miami University, Oxford, OH
We are working to develop synthetic approaches to graphene nanoribbons (Gn) based on the oxidative planarization of ortho-phenylene oligomers (oPn).
We have successfully developed a synthetic approach that allows the efficient construction of oPn, which we used to synthesize a homologous series (up to the dodecamer). We have discovered that these materials exhibit a number of unusual properties, including surprisingly long-range delocalization as determined by UV/vis spectroscopy and hypsochromic shifts in fluorescence spectra. The o-phenylenes also appear to adopt well-defined helical conformations. Efforts to planarize them are ongoing.