Magnetic nanographenes: Synthesis and characterisation of structurally defined nanographene fragments containing paramagnetic metal ions

The development of tailored nanomaterials for quantum technologies is urgently needed.Currently, polydisperse materials (such as conducting polymers, graphene nanoribbons, carbon nanotubes, etc.), lead the research field of organic electronics, while non-discrete systems based on inorganic solids (as nitrogen–vacancy centers in diamond or certain defects in Si) are ahead in most applications in nanotechnology.

These areas of research progress towards the creation of smaller and more functional devices, promoting the invention of more and more sophisticated methods to control them.

One of the main barriers of this evolution is the lack of materials that offer reproducibility and scalability, as well as stability and functionality.

With that regard, molecular materials provide promising prospects due to their defined chemical structure, high processability, and because they can be tuned in a rational way by chemical design.The preparation of molecular materials containing magnetic functionality (spin centers) and the ability to transport electrons (a π-conjugated organic framework) is still very limited due to the lack of synthetic protocols.

Even though graphene is the most popular platform for organic electronics and magnetism, the insertion of spin centers in graphene-like materials has been scarcely explored.

In this project I aim to develop an efficient protocol for the preparation of hybrid nanographenes that compete with non-discrete materials.