Synthetic 2D polymers are novel macromolecules meeting the criteria planarity, repeat units, covalent bonds, thickness of one constituent unit, and seperability. Using e.g. the single crystal and the air/water interface approaches our group develops monomers and performs polymerizations providing access to this intriguing class of polymers. This research has strong components in analytics and handling of molecular sheets. First explorations into applications have also been started.

The main questions currently being investigated include:

• [4+4]Cycloaddition polymerization in the single crystal
• [4+4]Cycloaddition polymerization at the air/water interface
• [2+2]Cycloaddition polymerization in the single crystal and at the air/water interface
• Two-dimensional polymerization using Schiff-base chemistry at the air/water interface (collaboration with Prof. W. Zhang, Boulder)
• Chemistry with 2D polymers
• Structure analysis in manifold collaborations and explorations into possible applications (collaboration with the group of Prof. K. Ensslin, ETHZ, and with Dr. D. Opris, Empa, Dübendorf)