2010/04/04 by Liying Jiao, Xinran Wang, Georgi Diankov +2 · 3 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Battery Materials #Band gap #Carbon nanotube #Composite material #Graphene #Graphene nanoribbons #Graphene research and applications #Materials science #Nanotechnology #Optics #Optoelectronics #Raman spectroscopy #Supercapacitor Materials and Fabrication #Yield (engineering) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nnano.2010.54
Nature Nanotechnology in press
openalex publication_date 2010/04/04 · arxiv created 2010/04/08 · arxiv updated 2015/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Graphene nanoribbons have attracted attention for their novel electronic and spin transport properties1-6, and because nanoribbons less than 10 nm wide have a band gap that can be used to make field effect transistors. However, producing nanoribbons of very high quality, or in high volumes, remains a challenge. Here, we show that pristine few-layer nanoribbons can be produced by unzipping mildly gas-phase oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotube using mechanical sonication in an organic solvent. The nanoribbons exhibit very high quality, with smooth edges (as seen by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy), low ratios of disorder to graphitic Raman bands, and the highest electrical conductance and mobility reported to date (up to 5e2/h and 1500 cm2/Vs for ribbons 10-20 nm in width). Further, at low temperature, the nanoribbons exhibit phase coherent transport and Fabry-Perot interference, suggesting minimal defects and edge roughness. The yield of nanoribbons was ~2% of the starting raw nanotube soot material, which was significantly higher than previous methods capable of producing high quality narrow nanoribbons1. The relatively high yield synthesis of pristine graphene nanoribbons will make these materials easily accessible for a wide range of fundamental and practical applications.