Self-assembling serpentine nano-structures can tune graphene's magnetic properties and bandgap, claimed scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
They have been dubbed nano-wiggles.
"Nano-wiggles were only recently discovered by a group led by scientists at EMPA, Switzerland. These particular nanoribbons are formed using a bottom-up approach, since they are chemically assembled atom by atom," said Rensselaer, adding that this avoids the ragged edges produced when shapes are cut from sheet graphene.
Seeing potential in the fabrication technique, professor Vincent Meunier from Rensselaer modelled various potential wiggle shapes on the Institute's supercomputer, and found was that graphitic nanoribbons can be segmented into several different surface structures with distinct magnetic and conductive properties.
"Graphene nanomaterials have plenty of nice properties, but to date it has been very difficult to build defect-free graphene nanostructures," said Meunier. "The advantage of graphene nano-wiggles is that they can easily and quickly be produced very long and clean."
Structures named for the shape include: armchair, armchair/zigzag, zigzag, and zigzag/armchair.
"We have created a roadmap that can allow for nano-materials to be easily built and customised for applications from photovoltaics to semiconductors and, importantly, spintronics," said Meunier.
The findings were published as 'Emergence of atypical properties in assembled graphene nano-ribbons' in Physical Review Letters.