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Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Aryl Migration on Graphene
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
Abstract:
The design and synthesis of molecular systems able to carry out movements resembling macroscopic objects is an exciting and challenging endeavor. Molecules that can walk covalently on a track have been demonstrated, and we now report how aryl groups that can migrate over a graphene surface. Specifically, we describe a system comprised of covalently functionalized aryl groups on graphene that undergo continuous aryl shifts. The dynamic aryl shift allows the aryl groups on graphene to effectively migrate step-by-step wherein each step involves reversible bond breaking and making that is initiated by a combination of an activated arene and p-doping of the graphene surface. Raman spectroscopic mapping of the distribution of the covalent attachment revealed that activated 4-methoxyphenyl groups migrate several microns from regions of high functionalization to regions with no prior functionalization.
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