Carbon Material With Ordered Sub-Nanometer Hole Defects

A holey carbon material with ordered sub-nanometer hole defects was synthesized from oxidative cyclodehydrogenation of a polyhexaphenylbenzene precursor. Band gap of around 2.2 eV is formed due to the narrow connection between the hexabenzocoronene subunits. It has weak interlayer interaction energy compared with graphene and shows easy dispersion in a wide range of solvents, surprisingly including water. Density functional theory calculations confirmd the excellent dispersion of this material in water. This new carbon material was then proved as effective support for various inorganic nanoparticles of small sizes. The supported iron nanoparticles showed enzyme-like catalysis behavior in nitrophenyl reduction reaction by NaBH(4), exemplifying the great potential of this new material in catalysis.