Two-dimensional (2D) materials are commonly prepared by exfoliating bulk layered van der Waals crystals formed under high temperature. The creation of “synthetic” 2D materials from bottom-up methods represents a challenge of widespread current interest as the structural flexibility facilitated by this approach will enable chemists to tune the materials’ properties. Here we present a synthetic strategy to obtain a new form of 2D carbon using C60 as a polymerizable monomer. We achieved free-standing C60 thin films by exfoliating superatom solids obtained from the crystallization of C60 and metal chalcogenide clusters. These superatom solids possess charge-neutral, close-packed C60 layers with inter-C60 spacing similar to those in bulk C60. After photopolymerizing fullerene layers within the superatom solid, we successfully exfoliate 2D C60 thin films in forms of C60/Co6Se8(PEt2phen)6/C60 sandwiches. The 2D films can be transferred onto solid substrates and depolymerized by heating. Structural characterization shows rhombohedral 2D lattice of the exfoliated films and Fourier transform infrared microscopy reveals a mid-IR band gap.

van der Waals assembly of two-dimensional fullerene thin films

255th National Meeting (2018)

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