Scientific Achievement
A new method synthesizes semiconducting graphene nanoribbons from polymer precursors by injecting charges from a scanning probe tip on selective molecular sites.
Significance and Impact
The ability to grow ultra narrow graphene ribbons without the typically used metal substrate yields a wide band gap semiconductor useful for electronics applications.
Research Details
- A scanning tunneling microscope is used to direct the chemical reaction as well as to probe the geometric and electronic structures of the graphene ribbons and organic precursors.
- Hole injection into a polymer chain triggers its conversion to a 7-carbon-atoms wide graphene ribbon with an armchair edge confirmation.
C. Ma, Z. Xiao, H. Zhang, L. Liang, J. Huang, W. Lu, B. G. Sumpter, K. Hong, J. Bernholc, and A.-P. Li, "Controllable Conversion of Quasi-Freestanding Polymer Chains to Graphene Nanoribbons," Nat. Commun. 8, 14815 (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14815
