A Quasi-Free-Standing Single Layer of a B₃N₃-Doped Nanographene Molecule Deposited on Au(111) Single Crystals

Abstract

We investigate the electronic structure of a quasi-free-standing single layer of a B3N3-doped nanographene molecule deposited on Au(111) single crystals. The single layer shows very high orientational order, as well as high chemical and vacuum stability. We demonstrate that the borazine doping is an alternative way to design a material having electronic properties similar to doped graphene/h-BN. Specifically, borazine doping of nanographenes leads to tuning the gap in the same energy range of carbon-doped h-BN, in agreement with the expected doping effect of graphene quantum dots in h-BN. We support our experimental findings by first-principles calculations.

BN‐Patterning of Metallic Substrates through Metal Coordination of Decoupled Borazines

“…In particular hybrid h ‐BNC nanostructures, where carbon‐carbon bonds are replaced by isoelectronic and isostructural BN couples are emerging as a new route to functionalize polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons without a significant structural perturbation of the molecular periphery and of its skeleton . The presence of BN bonds imparts strong local dipole moments that can tailor both, the optoelectronic properties and the self‐assembly behavior of the molecule . For instance, one can conjecture that the polar BN bonds could serve as anchoring point for non‐covalent adsorption of polar gases like CO 2 and CO, which can in principle interact with BN bonds through dipolar interactions, thus making BN‐doped materials very good candidates for gas adsorption .…”

“…This observation shows that the borazine core is decoupled from the metallic substrates by means of the dimethyl substituents, a fact which has been anticipated for similar borazine derivatives in a previous report . Additionally, the XPS binding energy of the N 1s line is at 399.2 eV, comparable to the value reported for other borazine derivatives on noble metal supports, and exceeding the value for h ‐BN/Cu(111) by about 1 eV . The different contributions of the N atoms located in the borazine core and in the pyridyl moieties could not be resolved with our lab‐based XPS setup.…”

“…[5,7] The presence of BN bonds imparts strongl ocal dipole moments that can tailor both, the optoelectronic properties and the self-assembly behavior of the molecule. [8,9] For instance, one can conjecture that the polar BN bonds could serve as anchoring point for non-covalent adsorption of polar gases like CO 2 and CO, which can in principle interactw ith BN bondst hrough dipolar interactions, thus making BN-doped materials very good candidates for gas adsorption. [10] To gether with the possibility of tuning the molecular bandgap into the visible range of the solar spectrum, these structures could emerge as unique photoactive materials triggering photochemicalt ransformations.…”

Stability of radical-functionalized gold surfaces by self-assembly and on-surface chemistry

“…Our procedure revealed to be extremely robust giving results in very good agreement with EPR and ab initio calculations, both for open-shell and closed-shell systems, as well. 9,[36][37][38][39][40][41][51][52][53][54][55] To reach this result, we work on sets of samples that are large enough to be statistically signicant. In this way, we can also identify the samples that do not correspond to the expected stoichiometry.…”

Borazatruxenes

“…43 In most cases, this reactivity is mitigated by steric bulk, 44,45 introduction of electron rich substituents or structural connement of the borazine ring. [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52]…”