Preparation of Carbon Nanosheets at Room Temperature

The presented procedure allows for the low temperature wet chemical preparation of carbon nanosheets through the self-assembly of novel amphiphilic molecules as reactive precursors and their subsequent carbonization at room temperature. Typically the preparation of carbon nanostructures requires high temperatures or pressures and a control over the morphology and chemical functionalization of the prepared carbons is difficult to achieve under such conditions. The developed approach solely requires UV irradiation at room temperature to furnish carbon nanosheets with molecularly defined dimensions below two nanometers and lateral dimensions on the order of centimeters.

To achieve this, we prepared molecules that are reactive, carbon-rich siblings of typical fatty acid amphiphiles and are designed to self-assemble at the air-water interface into monolayers. The monolayer features a densely packed array of hexayne moieties and the carbonization of the films yields a material otherwise only obtained at temperatures beyond 800 degrees Celsius. To begin, dissolve 208 milligrams of the protected hexayane in 15 milliliters of dichloromethane in a 100 milliliter Schlenk flask under inert atmosphere.