UC Berkeley

Laterally confining graphene into 1D strips known as graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) opens up a tunable bandgap dependent on width, edge structure, and dopant atoms, while still preserving the exceptional physical and electronic properties associated with graphene. As a result, GNRs have been heralded as materials for post-silicon electronics development and recently have become promising candidates as catalytic support materials. Deterministic bottom up synthesis is key to accessing atomically precise GNRs and has the powerful capability of “writing-in” selective properties by controlling the structure. The solution synthesis of these materials enables large scale production of GNRs; however, their integration into organic electronic devices is hampered by their visualization and localization on the surface by scanning probe microscopies and the functionalities that can be installed must survive the harsh parameters of synthesis. To this end, we have developed an azide functionalized GNR to enable late stage modification via copper-catalyzed click-chemistry (Chapter 2). “Clicking” on Cy5 fluorescent dyes gives rise to GNRs decorated along the edges with fluorescent tags detectable by optical microscopy and thus can be more efficiently visualized and localized by super resolution imaging. Bandgap engineering by tuning the width and edge structure of GNRs, as well as global alignment of GNRs is also required for their integration into next generation electronic devices (Chapter 4). Furthermore, bulk GNRs are proven to have practical applications beyond functioning as channel materials for electronic devices as tunable catalytic support materials (Chapter 3).