van Hove Singularity Enhanced Photochemical Reactivity of Twisted Bilayer Graphene

Nano Lett. 2015 Aug 12;15(8):5585-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02240. Epub 2015 Jul 8.

Abstract

Twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) exhibits van Hove singularities (VHSs) in the density of states that can be tuned by changing the twist angle (θ), sparking various novel physical phenomena. Much effort has been devoted to investigate the θ-dependent physical properties of tBLG. Yet, the chemical properties of tBLG with VHSs, especially the chemical reactivity, remain unexplored. Here we report the first systematic study on the chemistry of tBLG through the photochemical reaction between graphene and benzoyl peroxide. Twisted bilayer graphene exhibits θ-dependent reactivity, and remarkably enhanced reactivity is obtained when the energy of incident laser matches with the energy interval of the VHSs of tBLG. This work provides an insight on the chemistry of tBLG, and the successful enhancement of chemical reactivity derived from VHS is highly beneficial for the controllable chemical modification of tBLG as well as the development of tBLG based devices.

Keywords: chemical modification; enhanced photochemical reactivity; twisted bilayer graphene; van Hove singularity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't