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Nanocarbons

Interlocked structures on active duty

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 160–162 (2023)Cite this article

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Interlocking macrocyclic carbon nanomaterials is an exciting way to tune their molecular properties, but all-conjugated catenanes and rotaxanes are extremely challenging to make. Now, fully π-conjugated [2]- and [3]catenanes as well as a [3]rotaxane have been prepared through an ‘active metal template’ approach.

Carbon nanomaterials have a wide range of applications in organic electronics, materials science and chemical biology, yet their preparation is often crude and gives rise to difficult-to-separate heterogeneous mixtures. Curved, distorted or even macrocyclic π-conjugated networks are tremendously challenging to synthesize. However, the three-dimensional shape and size of a carbon nanomaterial fragment is intimately linked to its electronic and optical properties. For example, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene have identical local atomic constitution and connectivity (that is, they are entirely composed of conjugated sp2-carbons) but display vastly different physical and electronic properties due to their different spatial alignments.

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Fig. 1: Carbon nanomaterials.
Fig. 2: Active template synthesis to mechanically interlocked π-conjugated nanocarbons.

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  1. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry, Stockholm, Sweden

    Satyajit Das & Fredrik Schaufelberger

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  1. Satyajit Das
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  2. Fredrik Schaufelberger
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Correspondence to Fredrik Schaufelberger.

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Das, S., Schaufelberger, F. Interlocked structures on active duty. Nat. Chem. 15, 160–162 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-01130-9

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