Bottom-up Synthesis and Characterization of Porous 12-Atom-Wide Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons

Although several porous carbon/graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have been prepared, a direct comparison of the electronic properties between a nonporous GNR and its periodically perforated counterpart is still missing. Here, we report the synthesis of porous 12-atom-wide armchair-edged GNRs from a bromoarene precursor on a Au(111) surface via hierarchical Ullmann and dehydrogenative coupling. The selective formation of porous 12-GNRs was achieved through thermodynamic and kinetic reaction control combined with tailored precursor design. The structure and electronic properties of the porous 12-GNR were elucidated by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, revealing that the pores induce a 2.17 eV band gap increase compared to the nonporous 12-AGNR on the same surface.