Synthesis of graphene quantum dots for their supramolecular polymorphic architectures

How to regulate the supramolecular structures in the assembly of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) is still a great challenge to be overcome. Herein, the GQDs of 1-3 layers with high quality are synthesized from the new precursor m-trihydroxybenzene in a green method. More importantly, a strategy for designing the supramolecular structures of GQDs is demonstrated, and the novel supramolecular morphologies of GQDs have been constructed for the first time. Moreover, the supramolecular morphologies of GQDs can be well controlled by regulating the preparation conditions, and the formation mechanism of the branch-like supramolecular structure has been explained by the the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) model. This work not only develops a new precoursor to synthesize GQDs, but also opens up an effective route to form the polymorphic supermolecules, thus greatly facilitating their potential applications.