The best of both worlds: Graphene/ionic liquid (G–IL) layered films were obtained by direct reduction of graphene oxide in the presence of ionic liquids, followed by reassembly through electrostatic layer‐by‐layer (LbL) adsorption (see picture). The layer spacing of the graphene sheets is regularly expanded upon insertion of ionic liquid molecules (green discs). Selective sensing of aromatic compounds (red spheres) by using the G–IL LbL films was also achieved.

Molecular behavior and functionality are affected by their prevailing immediate environment. Molecular machines function according to conformational variations and have been studied largely in solution states. In order to access more highly complex functional molecular machines, it is necessary to analyze and control them in various environments. We have designed and synthesized a bisbinaphthyldurene (BBD) molecule that has two binaphthyl groups connected through a central durene moiety, allowing for the formation of several conformers. In density functional theory (DFT) calculations, BBD has five major conformers, denoted anti-1/anti-2/syn-1/syn-2/flat. It has been demonstrated that BBD exhibits different conformations in solution (anti-1 and syn-1) than on a gold surface (syn dimer and flat). In this work, the ratio of BBD conformations has been controlled in mixed monolayers with several different lipids at an air–water interface in order to compare conformational activity under different conditions. The conformations of BBD in transferred films obtained by using Langmuir–Blodgett techniques were estimated from circular dichroism spectra and DFT calculations. It has been found that the conformation of BBD in the mixed monolayer depends on its aggregated state, which has been controlled here by the mechanical properties and miscibility. In mixed monolayers with “hard” lipids having less miscibility with BBD as well as in cast film, BBD is self-aggregated and mostly forms stable anti-1 and syn-1 conformations, while unstable anti-2 and syn-2 conformers dominated in the more dispersed states involving “soft” lipids, which show good miscibility with BBD. Conformational changes in BBD are due to the formation of different aggregated states in each mixed monolayer according to the miscibility. Overall, BBD molecular conformations (and the resulting spectra) could be tuned by controlling the environment whether in solution, on a solid substrate, or in an admixture with lipids at the air–water interface.

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Here we report the thermal conversion of onedimensional (1D) fullerene (C 60 ) single-crystal nanorods and nanotubes to nanoporous carbon materials with retention of the initial 1D morphology. The 1D C 60 crystals are heated directly at very high temperature (up to 2000 8C) in vacuum, yielding a new family of nanoporous carbons having pelectron conjugation within the sp 2 -carbon robust frameworks. These new nanoporous carbon materials show excellent electrochemical capacitance and superior sensing properties for aromatic compounds compared to commercial activated carbons.Supporting information for this article (including detailed experimental procedures, additional SEM and TEM images, additional results obtained from thermogravimetric analysis, cyclic voltammetry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and results obtained from theoretical calculations) is available on the WWW under http://dx.

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