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Atomically precise bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons

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Abstract

Graphene nanoribbons—narrow and straight-edged stripes of graphene, or single-layer graphite—are predicted to exhibit electronic properties that make them attractive for the fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices1,2,3. In particular, although the two-dimensional parent material graphene4,5 exhibits semimetallic behaviour, quantum confinement and edge effects2,6 should render all graphene nanoribbons with widths smaller than 10 nm semiconducting. But exploring the potential of graphene nanoribbons is hampered by their limited availability: although they have been made using chemical7,8,9, sonochemical10 and lithographic11,12 methods as well as through the unzipping of carbon nanotubes13,14,15,16, the reliable production of graphene nanoribbons smaller than 10 nm with chemical precision remains a significant challenge. Here we report a simple method for the production of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons of different topologies and widths, which uses surface-assisted coupling17,18 of molecular precursors into linear polyphenylenes and their subsequent cyclodehydrogenation19,20. The topology, width and edge periphery of the graphene nanoribbon products are defined by the structure of the precursor monomers, which can be designed to give access to a wide range of different graphene nanoribbons. We expect that our bottom-up approach to the atomically precise fabrication of graphene nanoribbons will finally enable detailed experimental investigations of the properties of this exciting class of materials. It should even provide a route to graphene nanoribbon structures with engineered chemical and electronic properties, including the theoretically predicted intraribbon quantum dots21, superlattice structures22 and magnetic devices based on specific graphene nanoribbon edge states3.

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Figure 1: Bottom-up fabrication of atomically precise GNRs.
Figure 2: Straight GNRs from bianthryl monomers.
Figure 3: Chevron-type GNRs from tetraphenyl-triphenylene monomers.
Figure 4: Versatility of bottom-up GNR synthesis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the NCCR Nanoscale Science. R.F. and P.R. thank O. Gröning and P. Gröning for stimulating discussions and continued support. A.P.S. acknowledges discussions with F. Mauri and M. Lazzeri. The Mainz group acknowledges financial support from the Max Planck Society through the program ENERCHEM, the German Science Foundation (Korean-German IRTG), the DFG Priority Program SPP 1355 and DFG MU 334/32-1.

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Author notes

  1. Jinming Cai and Pascal Ruffieux: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, nanotech@surfaces Laboratory, 3602 Thun and 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland ,

    Jinming Cai, Pascal Ruffieux, Rached Jaafar, Marco Bieri, Thomas Braun, Stephan Blankenburg & Roman Fasel

  2. Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Micro and Nanosystems, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland,

    Matthias Muoth

  3. University of Zurich, Physical Chemistry Institute, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland ,

    Ari P. Seitsonen

  4. IMPMC, CNRS and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 place Jussieu, case 115, F-75252 Paris, France ,

    Ari P. Seitsonen

  5. Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55124 Mainz, Germany ,

    Moussa Saleh, Xinliang Feng & Klaus Müllen

  6. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Freiestrasse 3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland,

    Roman Fasel

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  1. Jinming Cai
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Contributions

P.R, R.F., X.F. and K.M. conceived the experiments. M.S. synthesized the molecular precursors. J.C., R.J., M.B. and P.R. performed the growth and scanning probe experiments. T.B. and M.M. did the spectroscopic analysis. S.B. and A.P.S. performed the simulations. J.C., P.R. and R.F. prepared the figures. P.R., J.C. and R.F. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and implications and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Klaus Müllen or Roman Fasel.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Cai, J., Ruffieux, P., Jaafar, R. et al. Atomically precise bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons. Nature 466, 470–473 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09211

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