Two‐Dimensional Fullerene Assembly from an Exfoliated van der Waals Template. Issue 21 (27th April 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lee, Kihong; Choi, Bonnie; Plante, Ilan Jen‐La; Paley, Maria V.; Zhong, Xinjue; Crowther, Andrew C.; Owen, Jonathan S.; Zhu, Xiaoyang; Roy, Xavier
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie international edition. Volume 57:Issue 21(2018)
• Page Start: 6125
• Page End: 6129
• Publication Date: 2018-04-27
• Subjects: C60 monolayers -- fullerenes -- hierarchical crystals -- photopolymerization -- two-dimensional materials; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201800953
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-7851

Abstract

Abstract: Two‐dimensional (2D) materials are commonly prepared by exfoliating bulk layered van der Waals crystals. The creation of synthetic 2D materials from bottom‐up methods is an important challenge as their structural flexibility will enable chemists to tune the materials properties. A 2D material was assembled using C60 as a polymerizable monomer. The C60 building blocks are first assembled into a layered solid using a molecular cluster as structure director. The resulting hierarchical crystal is used as a template to polymerize its C60 monolayers, which can be exfoliated down to 2D crystalline nanosheets. Derived from the parent template, the 2D structure is composed of a layer of inorganic cluster, sandwiched between two monolayers of polymerized C60 . The nanosheets can be transferred onto solid substrates and depolymerized by heating. Electronic absorption spectroscopy reveals an optical gap of 0.25 eV, narrower than that of the bulk parent crystalline solid. Abstract : C60 building blocks were assembled into a layered solid and the resulting hierarchical crystal was used as a template to polymerize its C60 monolayers, which can be exfoliated down to 2D crystalline nanosheets. The nanosheets can be transferred onto solid substrates and depolymerized by heating. Electronic absorption spectroscopy reveals an optical gap of 0.25 eV, which is narrower than that of the bulk parent crystalline solid.