Back to Search
Start Over
Homochiral polymerization-driven selective growth of graphene nanoribbons
- Source :
- Nature Chemistry. 9:57-63
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2016.
-
Abstract
- The surface-assisted bottom-up fabrication of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), which consists of the radical polymerization of precursors followed by dehydrogenation, has attracted attention because of the method's ability to control the edges and widths of the resulting ribbon. Although these reactions on a metal surface are believed to be catalytic, the mechanism has remained unknown. Here, we demonstrate ‘conformation-controlled surface catalysis’: the two-zone chemical vapour deposition of a ‘Z-bar-linkage’ precursor, which represents two terphenyl units linked in a ‘Z’ shape, results in the efficient formation of acene-type GNRs with a width of 1.45 nm through optimized cascade reactions. These precursors exhibit flexibility that allows them to adopt chiral conformations with height asymmetry on a Au(111) surface, which enables the production of self-assembled homochiral polymers in a chain with a planar conformation, followed by dehydrogenation via a conformation-controlled mechanism. This is conceptually analogous to enzymatic catalysis and will be useful for the fabrication of new nanocarbon materials. Metal surfaces have been believed to be catalytic, but the mechanism of catalysis is unknown. Now, graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) can be grown on Au(111) from a ‘Z-bar-linkage' precursor through a conformation-controlled mechanism. Chemical vapour deposition of precursors adopting a chiral conformation produced homochiral polymers, which are dehydrogenated to form GNRs.
- Subjects :
- chemistry.chemical_classification
Chemistry
General Chemical Engineering
Radical polymerization
02 engineering and technology
General Chemistry
Chemical vapor deposition
Polymer
010402 general chemistry
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
Photochemistry
01 natural sciences
0104 chemical sciences
Catalysis
chemistry.chemical_compound
Polymerization
Terphenyl
Dehydrogenation
0210 nano-technology
Graphene nanoribbons
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17554349 and 17554330
- Volume :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Chemistry
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....fb45fc30d89f66cc6f4fddd8097dc55e