Perchlorination of Coronene Enhances its Propensity for Self‐Assembly on Graphene

Providing a quantitative understanding of the thermodynamics involved in molecular adsorption and self‐assembly at a nanostructured carbon material is of fundamental importance and finds outstanding applications in the graphene era. Here, we study the effect of edge perchlorination of coronene, which is a prototypical polyaromatic hydrocarbon, on the binding affinity for the basal planes of graphite. First, by comparing the desorption barrier of hydrogenated versus perchlorinated coronene measured by temperature‐programmed desorption, we quantify the enhancement of the strength of physisorption at the single‐molecule level though chlorine substitution. Then, by a thermodynamic analysis of the corresponding monolayers based on force‐field calculations and statistical mechanics, we show that perchlorination decreases the free energy of self‐assembly, not only enthalpically (by enhancing the strength of surface binding), but also entropically (by decreasing the surface concentration). The functional advantage of a chemically modulated 2D self‐assembly is demonstrated in the context of the molecule‐assisted liquid‐phase exfoliation of graphite into graphene.     

Differential scanning calorimetry to measure the purity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

The application of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for purity determination is well documented in literature and is used amongst others in the analysis of pure organic crystalline compounds. The aim of this work is to examine whether the DSC method for purity determination consistently produces values for the purity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are sufficiently accurate as required for the certification of reference materials. For this purpose, 34 different existing PAH certified reference materials were tested. The DSC results are shown to be consistent with the results obtained by other methods assessing the organic impurities content in PAHs, like gas chromatography (GC), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry. Significant differences between the measured values and the certified purity values were observed only in a limited number of cases.     

Thermoanalytical studies of pitch pyrolysis

Characterization of pitches by thermal analysis techniques is highly relevant to the practical use of these materials, as they undergo heat treatments in all of their utilization processes. The aim of this work was to improve the interpretation of the complex DTA curves of pitches by comparison with model compounds. For this, TG/DTG/DTA was used to study under identical conditions the pyrolysis of a petroleum pitch and a coal tar pitch as well as a number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Results were interpreted as a function of the molecular structure, pyrolysis reactivity and graphitizability of cokes from the hydrocarbons. It is concluded that condensation and polymerization, which are the most likely exothermal reactions predominant in petroleum pitches, indicate the presence therein of reactive molecules. Alternatively, endothermal phenomena such as distillation, depolymerization and cracking, predominant in coal tar pitches, suggest the presence of light, little reactive aromatic molecules.Financial support from DGICYT (project PB87-0456) is gratefully acknowledged.