From Conception to Realization: An Historial Account of Graphene and Some Perspectives for Its Future

Abstract

There has been an intense surge in interest in graphene during recent years. However, graphene-like materials derived from graphite oxide were reported in 1962, and related chemical modifications of graphite were described as early as 1840. In this detailed account of the fascinating development of the synthesis and characterization of graphene, we hope to demonstrate that the rich history of graphene chemistry laid the foundation for the exciting research that continues to this day. Important challenges remain, however; many with great technological relevance.

Evolution of Graphene Molecules: Structural and Functional Complexity as Driving Forces behind Nanoscience

“…Currentpotential curves were measured by Chongwu Zhou after the GNRs were deposited from solution between electrodes, and the resulting devices could even be used for gas sensing. 50 Since the fabrication of FETs with organic semiconductors 11,51 is often obstructed by large contact resistances it was important that the charge carrier mobilities could also be detected in a contact-free mode by terahertz spectroscopy in the group of Mischa Bonn. 52 Some key challenges for synthesis of future chemical GNRs are: i) to further increase their size while also varying the aspect ratios, and control the edge structures; ii) to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 incorporate heteroatoms; iii) to form block copolymers from GNR blocks with different widths and thus different bandgaps; and iv) to end-cap with functional groups toward anchoring at electrodes.…”

“…Hence, it is necessary to utilize synthetic, bottom-up methods to achieve graphene materials with control over their chemical and physical structures. [11][12][13] Herein, the benzene ring serves as a modular building block in proceeding from small organic molecules to extended oligomers and finally their related polymers. Next to the size of the chemical structure, the second most important design principle is their dimensionality.…”

Hydrogen transport on graphene: Competition of mobility and desorption

“…The real-life application of graphene, even leaving aside technological challenges of producing sufficiently large sheets of high-quality samples, 6 will depend very much on its functional possibilities. For example, applications in microelectronics can be largely expanded if one were able to convert graphene, which is basically a semimetal, 1 into a semiconductor, preferably with an adjustable band gap.…”

Band Gap Engineering of Hybrid 2-D Nanomaterials Some Recent Developments

“…A variety of physical phenomena were observed including anomalous quantum Hall effect reflecting the presence of massless electrons, and possessing high electron mobility at room temperature made it known as a zero gap semiconductor with enhanced electronic properties. Unusual thermal and mechanical properties of graphene have been used in electromechanical resonators, stretchable and elastic matrices for flexible electronic circuitry, ultracapacitors, stable field emitters, and as fillers for electrically conducting flexible nanocomposites [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”