Science Daily May 25, 2021
Researchers in Switzerland have shown the nature of the structural disorder in bottom-up zigzag graphene nanoribbons along with its effect on the magnetism and electronic transport based on scanning probe microscopies and first-principles calculations. They found that edge-missing m-xylene units emerging during the cyclodehydrogenation step of the on-surface synthesis are the most common point defects. These “bite” defects act as spin-1 paramagnetic centers, severely disrupting the conductance spectrum around the band extrema, and give rise to spin-polarized charge transport. They also showed that the electronic conductance across graphene nanoribbons is more sensitive to “bite” defects forming at the zigzag edges than at the armchair ones. Their work establishes a comprehensive understanding of the low-energy electronic properties of disordered bottom-up graphene nanoribbons. Defective zigzag-edged nanoribbons may provide suitable platforms for certain applications in spintronics…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Abstract. Credit: J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12, 19, 4692–4696, May 12, 2021