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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Microscopic Visualization of Porous Nanographenes Synthesized through a Combination of Solution and On-Surface Chemistry
Published on: March 4, 2021
Synthesis of Stable Nanographenes with OBO-Doped Zigzag Edges Based on Tandem Demethylation-Electrophilic Borylation
Xiao-Ye Wang1, Akimitsu Narita1, Wen Zhang1
1Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research , Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany.
Abstract:
A tandem demethylation-aryl borylation strategy was developed to synthesize OBO-doped tetrabenzo[a,f,j,o]perylenes (namely "bistetracenes") and tetrabenzo[bc,ef,kl,no]coronenes (namely "peritetracenes"). The OBO-doped bistetracene analogues exhibited excellent stability and strong fluorescence, in contrast to the unstable all-carbon bistetracene. Single-crystal X-ray analysis for OBO-doped bistetracene revealed a twisted double [5]helicene structure, indicating that this synthesis is applicable to new heterohelicenes. Importantly, cyclodehydrogenation of the bistetracene analogues successfully produced the unprecedented heteroatom-doped peritetracenes, which opened up a new avenue to periacene-type nanographenes with stable zigzag edges.
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