| Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are narrow strips of graphene that have exceptional physical and electronic properties. GNR band-gap engineering by fine-tuning the width, edge geometry, and doping pattern of GNRs is required for integration into post-silicon electronic devices. To this end, we have developed several techniques to create armchair and chevron GNRs of varying widths (Chapter 2). In order to further tune the electronic properties of GNRs, we explore the synthesis and applications of a series of doped GNRs (Chapter 3). Namely, incorporating N-, O-, and S-dopant atoms along the edges of chevron GNRs induces a characteristic shift in the energy of conduction and valence band edge states. Furthermore, the controlled synthesis of atomically-precise bottom-up GNR heterojunctions represents a critical step toward the goal of integrating GNRs into device applications where their exceptional electronic properties can be exploited. To this end, we developed two methods of creating atomically precise GNR heterojunctions (Chapter 4), first via post-synthetic modification of the GNR edges, and second by employing a hierarchical growth process. Our work demonstrates tunable methods for band-gap engineering of graphene nanostructures for advanced electronic applications. |
