2026 Theses Doctoral

Potassium Metal as a Dissolvable Surface for the Synthesis of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

Smith, Jacklin

This dissertation describes the discovery, exploration, and in-progress optimization of a cyclodehydrogenation reaction using neat potassium metal as a dissolvable medium.

Chapter 1 introduces the field of PAHs, its current synthetic shortcomings and bottlenecks of the field, and how it may benefit from a solvent-free aromatization reaction. It also introduces our new synthetic method with a discussion on the general procedures and techniques we use.

Chapter 2 walks through the scope of the reaction focusing on benchmark cyclizations and following with avenues for synthesizing more exotic structures.

The goal of Chapter 3 is to show our efforts towards understanding edge structure design through experimentation with basic motifs and precise synthesis of complex PAHs.

Finally, Chapter 4 aims to expand the scope of these reaction conditions to halogenated precursors with the goal of performing the typical dehalogenative coupling and cyclodehydrogenation reactions in tandem. This chapter will look at the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) as the model system with which to benchmark this reactions