Recent Advances in 2D Polymeric Phthalocyanines: Synthesis, Characterization, Applications and New Challenges

2D polyphthalocyanines (PPCs) are actively studied as advanced materials for new generation energy and microelectronics. Some time ago such compounds were dubbed “just a dream of synthetic chemists”, what was a perfect reflection of, on the one hand, high promise, and, on the other hand, experimental difficulties faced with the 2D polymers. Despite a long history of PPCs (since late 1950s), it was shown recently that in many works the reaction products were mis-interpreted, and the studied compounds should be assigned to a low degree of the polymerization. Recent years, the discovery of graphene has inspired a new wave of interest to PPCs. From the graphene point of view, the questions are: whether we can make other graphene-like materials with modified properties? Can we use metal atoms to tune its electronic properties? Can we make a magnetic 2D material? From the polymer chemistry point of view, the major problem is why the common synthetic approaches and characterization techniques didn’t work for this polymer as expected? And how to identify the reaction products? This review covers evolution of the synthetic approaches, establishment of the reliable characterization techniques, as well as the promising applications of 2D PPCs and the “new dreams” in science and technology of these materials.