Cyclodehydrogenation of molecular nanographene precursors catalyzed by atomic hydrogen.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39814730.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-54774-1 and PMC identifier 11735845.
- 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
Atomically precise synthesis of graphene nanostructures on semiconductors and insulators has been a formidable challenge. In particular, the metallic substrates needed to catalyze cyclodehydrogenative planarization reactions limit subsequent applications that exploit the electronic and/or magnetic structure of graphene derivatives. Here, we introduce a protocol in which an on-surface reaction is initiated and carried out regardless of the substrate type. We demonstrate that, counterintuitively, atomic hydrogen can play the role of a catalyst in the cyclodehydrogenative planarization reaction. The high efficiency of the method is demonstrated by the nanographene synthesis on metallic Au, semiconducting TiO<sub>2</sub>, Ge:H, as well as on inert and insulating Si/SiO<sub>2</sub> and thin NaCl layers. The hydrogen-catalyzed cyclodehydrogenation reaction reported here leads towards the integration of graphene derivatives in optoelectronic devices as well as developing the field of on-surface synthesis by means of catalytic transformations. It also inspires merging of atomically shaped graphene-based nanostructures with low-dimensional inorganic units into functional devices.