Large scale chemical functionalization of locally curved graphene with nanometer resolution

Abstract

Anchoring various functional groups to graphene is the most versatile approach for tailoring its functional properties. To date, one must use a special tunneling microscope for attaching a molecule at a specific position on the graphene with resolution better than several hundred nanometers, however, achieving this resolution is impossible on a large scale. We demonstrate for the first time that chemical functionalization can be achieved with nanometer resolution by introducing strain with nanometer scale modulation into a graphene layer. The spatial distribution of the strain has been achieved by transferring a single-layer graphene (SLG) onto a substrate decorated by a few nm large nanoparticles (NPs). By changing the number of NPs on the substrate, the amount of locally strained SLG increases, as confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy investigations. We further carried out hydrogenation and fluorination on the SLG with increasing amount of nanoscale corrugations.Raman spectroscopy, AFM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed unambiguously

Recent trends in covalent functionalization of 2D materials

“…Halogen radicals Dissociating diatomic halogen gas or organic halides produces free halogen radicals. External energy is required to generate radicals such as plasma, [199][200][201][202][203] UV, [204][205][206] electrochemical, 207,208 e-beam, 209 gammaray, 210 microwave, 211 laser, 212 and thermal heating. [213][214][215][216] Some molecules (e.g., XeF 2 ) are unstable enough to produce halogen radicals and react with graphene without external energy.…”

“…[213][214][215][216] Some molecules (e.g., XeF 2 ) are unstable enough to produce halogen radicals and react with graphene without external energy. 199,201,[217][218][219][220] Birch reduction is a hydrogenation method for graphene, using alkali metals (Li, Na, or K) as an electron source. Alcohol or water is usually used as a hydrogen source, with ammonia as the solvent to dissolve metal.…”

Evolution of Graphene Patterning: From Dimension Regulation to Molecular Engineering

“…Further reacting these protrusions with H 2 , XeF 2 , and diazonium salts can generate hydrogenated‐, fluorinated‐, and arylated‐graphene with periodic pattern distributions. [ 186–188 ]…”

Molecular hierarchical release using hydrogenated graphene origami under electric field

“…Recently, with the increasing application of graphene, it was discovered that chemically functionalized single-layer graphene can be folded into diverse and interesting nanostructures by rotating along the modification line [26,27]. This interesting phenomenon shows strong similarity to origami, which is a technique that rotates paper along creases, transforming twodimensional structures into complex three-dimensional structures.…”