Gap Opening in Double-Sided Highly Hydrogenated Free-Standing Graphene.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35294200.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c00162 and PMC identifier 9011389.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Conversion of free-standing graphene into pure graphane─where each C atom is sp<sup>3</sup> bound to a hydrogen atom─has not been achieved so far, in spite of numerous experimental attempts. Here, we obtain an unprecedented level of hydrogenation (≈90% of sp<sup>3</sup> bonds) by exposing fully free-standing nanoporous samples─constituted by a single to a few veils of smoothly rippled graphene─to atomic hydrogen in ultrahigh vacuum. Such a controlled hydrogenation of high-quality and high-specific-area samples converts the original conductive graphene into a wide gap semiconductor, with the valence band maximum (VBM) ∼ 3.5 eV below the Fermi level, as monitored by photoemission spectromicroscopy and confirmed by theoretical predictions. In fact, the calculated band structure unequivocally identifies the achievement of a stable, double-sided fully hydrogenated configuration, with gap opening and no trace of π states, in excellent agreement with the experimental results.