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In Situ Electrochemical Synthesis and Deposition of Discotic Hexa‐ peri ‐hexabenzocoronene Molecules on Electrodes: Self‐Assembled Structure, Redox Properties, and Application for Supercapacitor
Author(s) -
Qin Leiqiang,
Zhang Yunan,
Wu Xiaoyan,
Nian Li,
Xie Zengqi,
Liu Linlin,
Ma Yuguang
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201403734
Subject(s) - materials science , discotic liquid crystal , electrode , electrochemistry , molecule , graphene , supercapacitor , nanotechnology , redox , chemical engineering , chemistry , optoelectronics , liquid crystal , organic chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Discotic hexa‐ peri ‐hexabenzocoronene (HBC) molecules are synthesized by electrochemical cyclodehydrogenation reaction and in situ self‐assembled to π‐electronic, discrete nanofibular objects with an average diameter about 70 nm, which are deposited directly onto the electrode. The nanofibers consist of columnar arrays of the π‐stacked HBC molecules and the intercolumnar distance is determined to be 1.19 nm by X‐ray diffraction, which corresponds well to the distance of 1.1 nm observed by high‐resolution transmitting electron microscopy. The diameter of the molecular columns matches the size of the discotic HBC molecule indicating face‐to‐face π‐stacking of HBC units in the column. The HBC nanofibers on electrode are redox active, and the nanosized columnar structures provide a huge surface area, which is a great benefit for the charging/discharging process, delivering excellent capacitance of 155 F g −1 . The described electrochemical deposition method shows great advantage for self‐assembling the family of insoluble and structurally designable graphene‐like nano materials, which constitutes an important step toward molecular electronics.