On‐Surface Synthesis of Carbon Nanostructures

Novel carbon nanomaterials have aroused significant interest owing to their prospects in various technological applications. The recently developed on‐surface synthesis strategy provides a route toward atomically precise fabrication of nanostructures, which paves the way to functional molecular nanostructures in a controlled fashion. A plethora of low‐dimensional nanostructures, challenging to traditional solution chemistry, have been recently fabricated. Within the last few decades, an increasing interest and flourishing studies on the fabrication of novel low‐dimensional carbon nanostructures using on‐surface synthesis strategies have been witnessed. In particular, carbon materials, including fullerene, carbon nanotubes, and graphene nanoribbons, are synthesized with atomic precision by such bottom‐up methods. Herein, starting from the basic concepts and progress made in the field of on‐surface synthesis, the recent developments of atomically precise fabrication of low‐dimensional carbon nanostructures are reviewed.