Atomically precise carbon nanomaterials with curved topologies defines a central direction in modern synthetic chemistry and materials science. Motivated by the pioneering discovery of fullerenes, this pursuit has evolved to encompass the precision synthesis of carbon allotropes across dimensionalities—from zero-dimensional fullerenes and quasi-one-dimensional carbon nanotubes to three-dimensional Schwarzites. This review summarizes recent progress in bottom-up strategies towards these targets, highlighting the rational synthesis of key molecular segments. It formulated how such structurally defined fragments serve as both fundamental building blocks and critical model systems. These advances have not only enabled the establishment of precise structure–property relationships but also opened pathways for their controllable assembly. How to transform these discrete molecular units into macroscopically ordered, extended architectures, such as Schwarzites, still remains great challenge.
Long et al. (2026) studied this question.