Exploring Science with Phenine Nanocarbon Molecules
Presented by Prof. Hiroyuki Isobe
Hosted by Prof. Colin Nuckolls
Abstract:
Inspired by nanocarbons such as fullerenes, nanotubes and graphenes, chemists are currently striving to design and synthesize their segments as molecular entities with defined structures. The chemistry of nanocarbon molecules is revealing the uniqueness of large, curved π-systems, which is also facilitating advances in synthetic chemistry through synthetic challenges. Contributions to this field with our own nanocarbon molecules include interesting discoveries such as tight-binding hosts for fullerenes (Ka >1012 M–1), a circularly polarized luminescence emitter with a high g-value on the order of 0.15 and solid-state inertial rotations of trapped guests in nanotube molecules. Recently, we realized that the synthetic challenge of nanocarbon molecules also provides an interesting opportunity to rethink the organic synthesis of large π-systems and arrived at the notion of "phenine design" (https://doi.org/10.2183/pjab.98.020). Phenine chemistry has also led us to studies in interdisciplinary areas, including the recent "trilogy" on the stoichiometry inference of supramolecular complexes.
