A new approach to making graphene ribbons could be used for connectors for future molecular electronic devices. Electrons move through these nanoribbons without scattering, just as they do in carbon nanotubes offering almost zero electrical resistance.
Walt de Heer, Georgia Institute of Technology (GATech), Atlanta, USA, discussed details at the American Physical Society’s March 2011 Meeting in Dallas. The epitaxial growth approach eliminates the edges of the graphene allowing it to form structures of specific widths and shapes on a very smooth silicon carbide substrate. The approach sidesteps the complications of electron-beam lithography.
- Scalable templated growth of graphene nanoribbons on SiC,
M. Sprinkle, M. Ruan, Y. Hu, J. Hankinson, M. Rubio-Roy, B. Zhang, X. Wu, C. Berger, W. A. de Heer,
Nature Nanotechnol. 2010, 5, 727–731.
DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.192
