New paper in JACS

27 01 2026

A new study from a collaborative effort involving our group, now published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, reports the controlled solution-phase synthesis of structurally defined graphene nanoribbons with porphyrin units attached along opposite edges (GNR-Por). The ribbons adopt a chevron backbone with uniform width and lengths up to ~60 nm. This design enables single-ribbon dispersibility in common solvents and delivers strong optoelectronic performance: high charge-carrier mobility, long scattering times, efficient energy transfer from porphyrins to the backbone, and near-infrared room-temperature phosphorescence which is an unusual emission for GNR systems.

Our calculations explain the curved, wavy geometries that accompany these structures. They show that steric crowding from closely spaced porphyrins along the edges drives the backbone out of planarity into a periodic distortion. This curvature stabilizes dense functionalization and maintains electronic communication across the ribbon, consistent with the experimentally observed transport and optical behavior.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 148, 5, 5012–5021