Chemistry of Carbon Nanostructures . Edited by Klaus Müllen and Xinliang Feng. De Gruyter, 2017. Hardcover, Pp. XI+319. Price EUR 89.95, USD 126.00, GBP 67.99. ISBN 978‐3‐11‐028450‐8.

Chemistry of Carbon Nanostructures is divided into ten chapters and presents various contributions to the quite broad topic of carbon nanomaterials and -conjugated molecules. Given the major importance of nanocarbons at the present time, especially in view of the rapid expansion of research devoted to graphene and related materials, this book is timely and most welcome. Whereas the quality of editing and printing is obvious, it is unfortunate that, as it is already the case for many other books, there is no linking of ideas between the chapters. Neither a foreword nor an introduction is present for explaining the content, the rationale behind the order of the chapters or the reason for having selected the themes that have been addressed. Indeed, much more might have been expected from the very broad and general title of the book, whereas one finds that very specialized knowledge is reported in the different chapters. One might add that, when considering the topic of carbon nanostructures, it would have been rather easy to order the chapters and to provide a more self-consistent book, for instance gathering themes related to graphene on the one hand, themes related to nanorings, nanocages or nanoribbons on the other hand, etc. Instead of this, totally unrelated chapters follow one other. The title of chapter 1 is Carbon Nanomembranes (29 pages), but only membranes produced by electron-induced cross-linking of aromatic self-assembled monolayers are reviewed. Due to this, the specific case of polyaromatic thiols is considered in detail. The review is very complete and goes deep into the formation mechanisms of these materials and in the way those mechanisms were elucidated. Examples of materials prepared in various conditions are presented, showing the versatility of such membranes, as well as the various techniques used for investigating them. At the end, a few properties and potential applications are commented on. Very interesting, but quite specific. The chapter lacks subsections that would have improved the reader’s experience and increased the clarity on the whole. Chapter 2 (37 pages), entitled Controlled Functionalization of Graphene by Oxoaddends deals with a special family of graphene oxide, called ‘oxo-functionalized graphene’, corresponding to graphenic domains having an intact carbon framework. Compared with the other chapters of this book, this one received less care at the moment of being written, as proved by various typos, flawed English here and there, and incorrect section numbering listed in the introduction. A significant part of the chapter is devoted to the preparation of oxo-functionalized graphenes by various routes and to their structure and characterization tools. Chemical functionalization and modification is then considered. In this part, several figures lack clarity. However, this chapter is of great importance considering there is worldwide research interest for graphene and its relatives, especially for those prepared by simple methods in solutions, and for all related problems of defects, polydispersity and stability. In chapter 3 (Chemical Synthesis of Cycloparaphenylenes, 37 pages), fine organic chemistry is used for preparing carbon nanorings that might be considered as templates or building blocks for the construction of carbon nanotubes. A thorough review detailing how such nanorings can be synthesized, whether armchair, zigzag or chiral, doped or not with heteroelements, is extensively given, and constitutes the major part of the chapter. ISSN 2052-5206