A paper by Professor Daniel T. Gryko, a recipient of the FNP Prize (2017) and beneficiary of the Foundation for Polish Science?s TEAM and MISTRZ programmes, entitled ?On-surface synthesis of a nitrogen-embedded buckybowl with inverse Stone-Thrower-Wales topology?, has been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.
The publication discusses the synthesis and properties of a hitherto unknown non-flat polycyclic aromatic compound. This heterocyclic molecule has a total of 14 condensed aromatic rings, including a structurally unique combination of two pentagonal rings and two heptagonal rings. This arrangement, identified as the inverse Stone-Thrower-Wales topology, has previously only been found in graphene samples bombarded with high-energy electrons. Furthermore, the synthesized molecule, which is bowl-shaped, shows a tendency for bowl-opening-down conformation on a gold surface, which has never been observed before for non-flat aromatic molecules. The final stage of synthesis was carried out in a scanning tunnelling microscope. The paper is the result of a collaboration with a group headed by Professor Roman Fasel (EMPA, Dübendorf, Switzerland).
Prof. Daniel Gryko, PhD habil., received the Foundation for Polish Science Prize 2017 in the chemical and material sciences for the development of an original method for synthesis and characterization of porphyrinoids.
Prof. Daniel Gryko’s biography and an outline of his research
Pictured: Prof. Daniel Gryko / photo by Magdalena Wiśniewska-Krasińska
Illustration by Maciej Krzeszewski, PhD, and Yevgen Poronik, PhD