On-surface synthesis of superlattice arrays of ultra-long graphene nanoribbons

Chem Commun (Camb). 2018 Aug 21;54(68):9402-9405. doi: 10.1039/c8cc04830d.

Abstract

We report the on-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbon superlattice arrays directed by the herringbone reconstruction of the Au(111) surface. The uniaxial anisotropy of the zigzag pattern of the reconstruction defines a one dimensional grid for directing the Ullmann polymerization and inducing periodic arrays of parallel ultra-long nanoribbons (>100 nm), where the periodicity is varied with coverage at discrete values following a hierarchical templating behavior.