Switching From Reactant to Substrate Engineering in the Selective Synthesis of Graphene Nanoribbons

Abstract

The challenge of synthesizing graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with atomic precision is currently being pursued along a one-way road, based on the synthesis of adequate molecular precursors that react in predefined ways through self-assembly processes. The synthetic options for GNR generation would multiply by adding a new direction to this readily successful approach, especially if both of them can be combined. We show here how GNR synthesis can be guided by an adequately nanotemplated substrate instead of by the traditionally designed reactants. The structural atomic precision, unachievable to date through top-down methods, is preserved by the self-assembly process. This new strategy s proof-of-concept compares experiments using 4,4 -dibromo-para-terphenyl as molecular precursor on flat Au(111) and stepped Au(322) substrates. As opposed to the former, the periodic steps of the latter drive the selective synthesis of 6 atom-wide armchair GNRs, whose electronic properties have been further characterized in detail by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, angle resolved photoemission and density functional theory calculations.

References in corpus (14)

• The SIESTA method for ab initio order-N materials simulation
• Efficient index handling of multidimensional periodic boundary conditions
• Energy Gaps in Graphene Nanoribbons
• On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology
• Width-Dependent Band Gap in Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons Reveals Fermi Level Pinning on Au(111)
• Armchair graphene nanoribbons: Electronic structure and electric field modulation
• Substrate-Independent Growth of Atomically Precise Chiral Graphene Nanoribbons
• Quasi one-Dimensional Band Dispersion and Metallization In long Range Ordered Polymeric wires
• Electronic Band Dispersion of Graphene Nanoribbons via Fourier-Transformed Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy
• Unraveling the electronic structure of narrow atomically-precise chiral graphene nanoribbons
• Π Band Dispersion along Conjugated Organic Nanowires Synthesized on a Metal Oxide Semiconductor
• Tunable Band Alignment with Unperturbed Carrier Mobility of On-Surface Synthesized Organic Semiconducting Wires
• Bottom-up fabrication of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons
• Doping of Graphene Nanoribbons via Functional Group Edge Modification

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Electronic structure tunability by periodic meta-ligand spacing in one-dimensional organic semiconductors
• On-Surface Synthesis of Heptacene on Ag(001) from Brominated and Non-Brominated Tetrahydroheptacene Precursors
• Transferring Axial Molecular Chirality Through a Sequence of On-Surface Reactions
• On-surface synthesis and evolution of self-assembled poly($p$-phenylene) chains on Ag(111): a joint experimental and theoretical study
• Hierarchy in the halogen activation during surface-promoted Ullmann coupling
• The Microscopic Diamond Anvil Cell: Stabilization of Superhard, Superconducting Carbon Allotropes at Ambient Pressure
• Investigation of Edge States in Artificial Graphene Nano-Flakes
• Band structure and energy level alignment of chiral graphene nanoribbons on silver surfaces