Carbon graphene nanoribbon

The field of carbon nanostructure research is vast and novel, and it experienced a major breakthrough after the discovery of fullerenes in 1985 [1], and their subsequent bulk synthesis in 1990 [2]. This event opened the minds of various scientists towards discovering novel carbon allotropes. Promptly, yet another allotrop of carbon was observed by Iijima [3], although it had previously been produced by M. Endo et al. in the 1970s by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [4]. The most recent important advance in the quest for novel forms of carbon constitutes the isolation of graphene layers [5], which exhibit unique and exceptional electrical properties [6]. In addition, graphene nanoribbons have recently been synthesized and produced using diverse methods [7]. 

A. Chuvilin, E. Bichoutskaia, M. C. Gimenez-Lopez, T. W. Chamberlain, G. A. Ranee, N. Kuganathan, J. Biskupek, U. Kaiser, A. N. Khlobystov, Self-assembly of a sulphur-terminated graphene nanoribbon within a single-walled carbon nanotube, Nature Mater., vol. 10, p. 687-692, 2011. 

Under electron irradiation (or by other mechanisms) it is possible to generate carbon vacancies leading to the formation of extended defect domains (with the presence of pentagonal and heptagonal, and even four-membered carbon rings) showing semiconductor character. This is the mechanism of formation of semiconductor properties in quantum-dot carbon nanoparticles or graphene nanoribbon. The mechanism... 

Yu, S.-S. Zheng, W.-T., Effect of N/B doping on the electronic and field emission properties for carbon nanotubes, carbon nanocones, and graphene nanoribbons. Nanoscale 2010,2 1069-1082. 

D. V. Kosynkin, A. L. Higginbotham, A. Sinitskii, J. R. Lomeda, A. Dimiev, B. K. Price, J. M. Tour, Longitudinal Unzipping of Carbon Nanotubes to Form Graphene Nanoribbons. Nature 2009,458,872-876. 

Three-dimensional (3D) polyaniline (PANI)-graphene nanoribbon (GNR)-carbon nanotube (CNT) composite, PANI-GNR-CNT, was prepared via in-situ polymerization of aniline monomer on the surface of a GNR-CNT hybrid. This hierarchical PANI-GNR-CNT composite with the two-electrode cell assembly showed much higher specific capacitance (890 F/g) than the GNR-CNT hybrid (195 F/g) and neat PANI (283 F/g) at a discharge current density of 0.5 A/g. This composite exhibited good cycling stability with a retention ratio of 89% after 1000 cycles [63]. 

This technique was successfully applied by authors to calculate the ideal transport characteristics of carbon nanotubes [11] graphene bilayer graphene [12] and graphene nanoribbons [13]. 

Kosynkin, D.V., et al. Longitudinal unzipping of carbon nanotubes to form graphene nanoribbons. Nature, 458(7240), 872-876 (2009)... 

Carbon (element No. 6 in the periodic table) forms a variety of materials, including graphite, diamond, carbon fibers, charcoal, as well as newly discovered nanocarbon materials, such as fullerene, graphene, carbon nanotube, and graphene nanoribbon (GNR). Even though all are composed of the same atoms, different carbon materials can show very different physical and chemical properties, including electrical transport, optical and thermal properties, and chemical reactivity, depending on their structures. 

Figure 1.18 Unzipping a carbon nanotube to form a graphene nanoribbon. Figure from Ref. [110].

He, L., Lu, J.Q., and Jiang, H.Q. (2009) Controlled carbon-nanotube Junctions self-assembled from graphene nanoribbons. Small, 5, 2802 - 2806. 

Metal-free reactions represent a direct way to study the confinement effects induced by the nanotube itself. Few such reactions have been carried out within CNTs, but notable examples include the formation of linear structures, such as fuUerene [151] and fullerene epoxide oligomers [174], formation of DWCNTs from endohedral fiiUerenes encapsulated in SWCNTs [71,155,156], or from encapsulated ferrocene [165], graphene nanoribbons (GNR) [186,187], the transformation of [Fe(C6oMc5)Cp] into encapsulated C70 [157], or the transformation of adamantane [188] and functionalized diamantine [189] in carbon chains. 

Talyzin AV, Anoshkin IV, Krasheninnikov AV, Nieminen RM, Nasibulin AG, Jiang H, Kauppinen El. Synthesis of graphene nanoribbons encapsulated in single-walled carbon nanotubes. Nano Lett 2011 11 4352-6. 

Campos-Delgado, J., et al. (2008). Bulk Production of a New form of sp2 Carbon Crystalline Graphene Nanoribbons. Nano letters, 8(9), 2773-2778. 

Liu M, Zhang C, Tjiu WW, Yang Z, Wang W, Liu T (2013b) One-step hybridization of graphene nanoribbons with carbon nanotubes and its strong-yet-ductile thermoplastic polyurethane composites. Polym (UK) 54(12) 3124-3130... 

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