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Abstract Nanographene materials are promising building blocks for the growing field of low-dimensional materials for optics, electronics and biophotonics applications. In particular, bottom-up synthesized 0D graphene quantum dots show great potential as single quantum emitters. To fully exploit their exciting properties, the graphene quantum dots must be of high purity; the key parameter for efficient purification being the solubility of the starting materials. Here, we report the synthesis of a family of highly soluble and easily processable rod-shaped graphene quantum dots with fluorescence quantum yields up to 94%. This is uncommon for a red emission. The high solubility is directly related to the design of the structure, allowing for an accurate description of the photophysical properties of the graphene quantum dots both in solution and at the single molecule level. These photophysical properties were fully predicted by quantum-chemical calculations.