Efficient Preparation and Characterization of Functional Graphene with Versatile Applicability

Graphene, as star versatile materials having extraordinarily high electric conductivity, electron mobility, thermal conductivity, thermal stability, optical transparency, and mechanical strength, has attracted much attention from scientists and engineers in the field of materials, chemistry, physics, energy, and environment in the last decade and achieved fruitful accomplishment. This review discusses preparation strategies, functionality, characterization, and applications for two dimensional nanosheet and quasi-one-dimensional nanoribbon of graphene through direct exfoliation of graphite, chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbon, laser-induced direct synthesis of graphene, laser etched graphene oxide in the dry state without the use of toxic reducing agent hydrazine, unzipping carbon nanotube, and polycondensation of polycyclic aromatics on the basis of 178 representative references mostly in 2015. The stabilization of graphene oxide prepared in chemical preparation in "top-down" is emphasized. Several vital classic methods of characterizing molecular structure, C/O ratio, defect, morphology, single-or few-layered (2 to 10 layers) structure, porous and hollow structures, including Raman spectroscopy, AFM, SEM, TEM, STM, electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are systematically introduced. Because graphene possesses novel incomparable multifunctionalities, its versatile applications as novel conducting additives, reinforcing filler, separation membrane, sensor, anticorrosive coating, catalyst, electromagnetic shield, lubricant, and flexible electrode materials in electrochemical and electronic devices, including photovoltaic cells, supercapacitors, rechargeable batteries, sensors, field effect transistors, light emitting diodes, separation membranes, adsorbents and absorbents, catalysts, electro-optic modulator, terahertz emitter and detector, and semiconductors, have been mentioned.Especially in the aspect of both high performance and cost-effectiveness, graphene is expected to be even superior to the expensive carbon nanotubes.     

Superior Thermoelectric Performance of Textured Ca3Co4−xO9+δ Ceramic Nanoribbons

Calcium cobaltite Ca₃Co_4−xO_9+δ (CCO) is a promising p-type thermoelectric (TE) material for high-temperature applications in air. The grains of the material exhibit strong anisotropic properties, making texturing and nanostructuring mostly favored to improve thermoelectric performance. On the one hand multitude of interfaces are needed within the bulk material to create reflecting surfaces that can lower the thermal conductivity. On the other hand, low residual porosity is needed to improve the contact between grains and raise the electrical conductivity. In this study, CCO fibers with 100% flat cross sections in a stacked, compact form are electrospun. Then the grains within the nanoribbons in the plane of the fibers are grown. Finally, the nanoribbons are electrospun into a textured ceramic that features simultaneously a high electrical conductivity of 177 S cm⁻¹ and an immensely enhanced Seebeck coefficient of 200 µV K⁻¹ at 1073 K are assembled. The power factor of 4.68 µW cm⁻¹ K⁻² at 1073 K in air surpasses all previous CCO TE performances of nanofiber ceramics by a factor of two. Given the relatively high power factor combined with low thermal conductivity, a relatively large figure-of-merit of 0.3 at 873 K in the air for the textured nanoribbon ceramic is obtained.     

氧化石墨烯纳米带杂化粒子和石墨烯纳米带的研究进展

氧化石墨烯纳米带杂化粒子是将氧化石墨烯纳米带(GONRs)与其他纳米粒子经π-π键、氢键等结合方式复合在一起,通过这种特殊的结合形态一方面可以有效地防止GONRs的聚积,另一方面新的纳米粒子的引入能够赋予该杂化材料某些特殊的性能,从而有利于充分发挥GONRs杂化材料在聚合物改性等领域的综合性能。本文综述了氧化石墨烯纳米带杂化粒子的制备方法、性能和应用现状。此外,针对GONRs的还原产物石墨烯纳米带(GNRs)的结构、性能、制备方法及其应用领域也进行了系统性地论述。相关研究表明,氧化石墨烯纳米带杂化粒子的设计与制备是氧化石墨烯纳米带迈向实用领域的一个有效途径,而石墨烯纳米作为石墨烯的一种特殊结构的二维变体,继承了石墨烯优良的导电和导热等性能,同时特殊的边缘效应,因而呈现出了更广阔的应用潜力。     

Spin-filter silicene devices induced by asymmetric electrodes

Using nonequilibrium Green's function in combination with the density functional theory, we investigate the spin-dependent transport properties of three silicene-based heterojunctions. The calculated results show that the heterojunctions are promising multifunctional devices in spintronics due to their nearly perfect bipolar spin-filter effect and high rectification ratio. Also shown are the obvious negative differential resistance behaviors for both spin channels. By analyzing the spin-resolved transmission spectra and the band structure of ZSiNR electrodes, as well as the spatial resolved local density of states, the mechanisms for these intriguing properties are demonstrated in detail.     

Analytical performance of 3?m and 3?m +1 armchair graphene nanoribbons under uniaxial strain

The electronic band structure and carrier density of strained armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) with widths of n =3 m and n =3 m +1 were examined using tight-binding approximation. The current-voltage (I-V) model of uniaxial strained n =3 m AGNRs incorporating quantum confinement effects is also presented in this paper. The derivation originates from energy dispersion throughout the entire Brillouin zone of uniaxial strained AGNRs based on a tight-binding approximation. Our results reveal the modification of the energy bandgap, carrier density, and drain current upon strain. Unlike the two-dimensional graphene, whose bandgap remains near to zero even when a large strain is applied, the bandgap and carrier density of AGNRs are shown to be sensitive to the magnitude of uniaxial strain. Discrepancies between the classical calculation and quantum calculation were also measured. It has been found that as much as 19% of the drive current loss is due to the quantum confinement. These analytical models which agree well with the experimental and numerical results provide physical insights into the characterizations of uniaxial strained AGNRs.     

Electronic structure,carrier mobility and device properties for mixed-edge phagraphene nanoribbon by hetero-atom doping

Phagraphene, a new carbon allotrope, was proposed recently. We here select a mixed-edge phagraphene ribbon to study B-, N-, and BN-doping effects respectively on the geometric stability, electronic structure, carrier mobility, and device property. Calculations show that the energetic and thermal stability for these ribbons are very high. With different doping types and doping sites, the bandgap size of a ribbon may be nearly unchanged, increased, or decreased as compared with the intrinsic ribbon, and even become a metal, thus presenting fully tunable electronic structures. For this, the charge transfer shifting edge bands and the new formed hybridized bands due to doping play a crucial role. More interestingly, doping at different positions can regulate the carrier mobility of ribbon, and the difference of two orders of magnitude for hole mobility can be generated by BN-doping. In addition, the study on device property shows that there is a prominent negative differential resistance characteristics occurring in a BN-doped ribbon device. These findings are meaningful for understanding the doping effects on electronic properties of phagraphene nanoribbons.     

Quantum transport simulations of graphene nanoribbon devices using Dirac equation calibrated with tight-binding π-bond model

We present an efficient approach to study the carrier transport in graphene nanoribbon (GNR) devices using the non-equilibrium Green''s function approach (NEGF) based on the Dirac equation calibrated to the tight-binding π-bond model for graphene. The approach has the advantage of the computational efficiency of the Dirac equation and still captures sufficient quantitative details of the bandstructure from the tight-binding π-bond model for graphene. We demonstrate how the exact self-energies due to the leads can be calculated in the NEGF-Dirac model. We apply our approach to GNR systems of different widths subjecting to different potential profiles to characterize their device physics. Specifically, the validity and accuracy of our approach will be demonstrated by benchmarking the density of states and transmissions characteristics with that of the more expensive transport calculations for the tight-binding π-bond model.     

铁链镶嵌锯齿形氮化硼纳米带半金属铁磁性的第一性原理研究

基于第一性原理,研究了铁链单侧边界钝化型的锯齿形氮化硼纳米带（简称为Fe-terminated ZBNNRs）和铁链连接型的锯齿形氮化硼纳米带（简称为Fe-jointed ZBNNRs）的电子结构及磁性。Fe-terminated ZBNNRs 对于不同带宽的BN纳米带都是半导体型的,而Fe-jointed ZBNNRs 对于不同带宽的BN纳米带则为半金属型。这两种 结构各自的磁性主要都是来自于所掺杂的铁原子。Fe-jointed ZBNNRs 的半金属性源自Fe原子的3d轨道与N原子的2p轨道间的强耦合作用。通过分子动力学模拟,证实了该 结构在常温下可以稳定存在。Fe-jointed-ZBNNRs 对于两种不同自旋方向电子的选择过滤作用可以被应用于自旋电子学器件的设计。其它各种不同的过渡金属所形成的连接型的锯齿形氮化硼纳米带（简称为M-jointed ZBNNRs）既可以是金属型的、半金属型的,也可以是半导体型的。