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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Carbon Nanostructures: Covalent and Macromolecular Chemistry

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The aim of this introductory chapter is to bring to the attention of the readers the achievements made in the chemistry of carbon nanostructures and, mostly, in the chemistry of fullerenes, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and the most recent graphenes. Since the discovery of fullerenes in 1985 and their further preparation in multigram amounts, the chemistry and reactivity of thesemolecular carbon allotropes have been well established. Actually, this chemical reactivity has been used as a benchmark for further studies carried out in the coming carbon nanotubes (single andmultiple wall) and graphenes. Assuming that the fundamental chemistry of fullerenes is known and basically corresponds to that of typical electron-deficient alkenes, we havemainly focused on the chemistry of fullerene-containing polymers. In this regard, the combination of the unique fullerenes with the highly versatile polymer chemistry has afforded a new and interdisciplinary field inwhich the resulting architectures are able to exhibit unprecedented properties. The basic knowledge of this important topic of macromolecular chemistry of fullerenes nicely complements the following chapters devoted to their supramolecular chemistry. The chemistry of CNTs, on the other hand, is considerable less developed than that of fullerenes, and most of their studied reactions are generally based on those previously studied on fullerenes. Therefore, despite the recent reviews and books published on CNTs, we feel that an introductory chapter describing the most significant solubilization/derivatization covalent and noncovalent methods should be helpful and welcome by the readers, and particularly to those nonexperts in the field. This same objective has been pursued for the most recent and planar graphenes. The available literature on the chemistry of these one-atom thickness carbon allotropes is considerably less developed. Therefore, some useful chemical procedures reported so far for the functionalization and solubilization of graphenes – thus allowing its manipulation and application for the construction of devices – have also been included at the end of the chapter.