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Nano Research 2023, 16(7): 10644-10651 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5632-z
Research Article | Issue | Published: 20 June 2023

Microwave heating as a universal method to transform confined molecules into armchair graphene nanoribbons

Show Author's Information Haoyuan Zhang1,§,  Yingzhi Chen1,§,  Kunpeng Tang1,§,  Ziheng Lin1,  Xuan Li1,  Hongwei Zhang1,  Yifan Zhang1,2,  Chi Ho Wong3,  Chi Wah Leung4,  Chee Leung Mak4,  Yuan Hu5,  Weili Cui1( ),  Kecheng Cao5( ),  Lei Shi1( )
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Nanotechnology Research Center, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Huzhou Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials and Pollution Control, School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shanghai Key Laboratory of High-resolution Electron Microscopy, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China

§ Haoyuan Zhang, Yingzhi Chen, and Kunpeng Tang contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
Raman spectroscopy, microwave heating, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs)
Topics:
GrapheneSynthesis (chemical)
Cite this article:
Zhang H, Chen Y, Tang K, et al. Microwave heating as a universal method to transform confined molecules into armchair graphene nanoribbons. Nano Research, 2023, 16(7): 10644-10651. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5632-z
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) with sub-nanometer width are potential materials for the fabrication of novel nanodevices thanks to their moderate direct band gaps. AGNRs are usually synthesized by polymerizing precursor molecules on substrate surface. However, it is time-consuming and not suitable for large-scale production. AGNRs can also be grown by transforming precursor molecules inside single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) via furnace annealing, but the obtained AGNRs are normally twisted. In this work, microwave heating is applied for transforming precursor molecules into AGNRs. The fast heating process allows synthesizing the AGNRs in seconds. Several different molecules were successfully transformed into AGNRs, suggesting that it is a universal method. More importantly, as demonstrated by Raman spectroscopy, aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and theoretical calculations, less twisted AGNRs are synthesized by the microwave heating than the furnace annealing. Our results reveal a route for rapid production of AGNRs in large scale, which would benefit future applications in novel AGNRs-based semiconductor devices.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Microwave heating as a universal method to transform confined molecules into armchair graphene nanoribbons

Show Author's information Haoyuan Zhang1,§, Yingzhi Chen1,§, Kunpeng Tang1,§, Ziheng Lin1, Xuan Li1, Hongwei Zhang1, Yifan Zhang1,2, Chi Ho Wong3, Chi Wah Leung4, Chee Leung Mak4, Yuan Hu5, Weili Cui1( ), Kecheng Cao5( ), Lei Shi1( )
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Nanotechnology Research Center, Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Huzhou Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials and Pollution Control, School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Shanghai Key Laboratory of High-resolution Electron Microscopy, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China

§ Haoyuan Zhang, Yingzhi Chen, and Kunpeng Tang contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) with sub-nanometer width are potential materials for the fabrication of novel nanodevices thanks to their moderate direct band gaps. AGNRs are usually synthesized by polymerizing precursor molecules on substrate surface. However, it is time-consuming and not suitable for large-scale production. AGNRs can also be grown by transforming precursor molecules inside single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) via furnace annealing, but the obtained AGNRs are normally twisted. In this work, microwave heating is applied for transforming precursor molecules into AGNRs. The fast heating process allows synthesizing the AGNRs in seconds. Several different molecules were successfully transformed into AGNRs, suggesting that it is a universal method. More importantly, as demonstrated by Raman spectroscopy, aberration-corrected high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and theoretical calculations, less twisted AGNRs are synthesized by the microwave heating than the furnace annealing. Our results reveal a route for rapid production of AGNRs in large scale, which would benefit future applications in novel AGNRs-based semiconductor devices.

Keywords: Raman spectroscopy, microwave heating, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs)

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 22 November 2022
Revised: 11 February 2023
Accepted: 01 March 2023
Published: 20 June 2023
Issue date: July 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2023

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (No. 202201011790), Open Project of Guangdong Province Key Lab of Display Material and Technology (2020B1212060030), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51902353), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sun Yat-sen University (No. 22lgqb03), and State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies (No. OEMT-2022-ZRC-01). We thank the Department of Applied Physics at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to provide the ab-initio supports. We also thank the Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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