On-Surface Synthesis of a Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Nanoribbon with Multiple Substitutional Sites

Doped graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with heteroatoms are a principal strategy to fine-tune the electronic structures of GNRs for future device applications. Here, we successfully synthesized the N=9 nitrogen-doped armchair GNR on the Au(111) surface. Due to the flexibility of precursor molecules, three different covalent bonds (C-C, C-N, N-N) are formed in the GNR backbone. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy analysis together with band structure calculations reveals that the band gap of the N-9-AGNRs (C-C) will be enlarged compared to pristine 9-AGNRs, and the C-N bond and N-N bond at the isolated site of N-9-AGNR (C-C) will introduce new defect states near the Fermi level. DFT calculations reveal that the electronic structure of N-9-AGNR (C-C) shows semiconductor character, while N-9-AGNR (C-N) and N-9-AGNR (N-N) display metallic character. Our results provide a promising route for creating more complex molecular heterostructures with tunable band gaps, which may be useful for future molecular electronics and memory device applications.