CHEMICAL MODULATION OF ELECTRONIC AND MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF GRAPHENE

摘要

Compounds, compositions, systems and methods for the chemical and electrochemical modification of the electronic structure of graphene and especially epitaxial graphene (EG) are presented. Beneficially, such systems and methods allow the large-scale fabrication of electronic EG devices. Vigorous oxidative conditions may allow substantially complete removal of the EG carbon atoms and the generation of insulating regions; such processing is equivalent to that which is currently used in the semiconductor industry to lithographically etch or oxidize silicon and thereby define the physical features and electronic structure of the devices. However graphene offers an excellent opportunity for controlled modification of the hybridization of the carbon atoms from sp2 to sp3 states by chemical addition of organic functional groups. We show that such chemistries offer opportunities far beyond those currently employed in the semiconductor industry for control of the local electronic structure of the graphene sheet and do not require the physical removal of areas of graphene or its oxidation, in order to generate the full complement of electronic devices necessary to produce functional electronic circuitry. Selective saturation of the p-bonds opens a band gap in the graphene electronic structure which results in a semiconducting or insulating form of graphene, while allowing the insertion of new functionality with the possibility of 3-D electronic architectures. Beneficially, these techniques allow for large- scale fabrication of electronic EG devices and integrated circuits, as they allow the generation of wires (interconnects), semiconductors (transistors), dielectrics, and insulators.