Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have unique electrical properties and are more suitable for the development of a new generation of electronic devices than two-dimensional planar graphene with zero band gap. Therefore, recently they have received extensive attention from the academic community. The band gap of GNRs is regulated by their width and edge structure. Thus, it is an important issue to control the preparation of GNRs with specific edges and widths. Using the confined space provided by single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with different diameters as nanoreactors to regulate the reaction of small molecule precursors for the synthesis of specific GNRs has a unique reaction mechanism, which is different from polymerrization of monomers used in surface chemical reaction.

    In this paper, ferrocene as the precursor molecule and a series of SWCNTs with different diameter distributions as nanoreactors are used to study the relationship between the growth of different GNRs and SWCNTs. Through Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) characterization, it is found that the width of GNRs is regulated by the diameter of SWCNTs, especially SWCNTs with an average diameter of 1.3 nm can produce a large number of 6/7-armchair GNRs. In addition, SWCNTs separated from semiconducting and metallic types also have a certain impact on the yield of GNRs.

    Paper information: Carbon nanotube-dependent synthesis of armchair graphene nanoribbons. Nano Research DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-3819-8 (2021) Yifan Zhang, Kecheng Cao, Takeshi Saito, Hiromichi Kataura, Hans Kuzmany, Thomas Pichler, Ute Kaiser, Guowei Yang*, and Lei Shi*.