UC Berkeley

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), nanometer wide strips of graphene with extraordinary

electronic and physical properties, represent the cutting edge of post-silicon electronics development.

These nanomaterials boast potential solutions to downsizing of future electronics

in both size and energy consumption, as well as opening the door to faster processing. Novel

GNRs of varied width and heteroatom incorporation were synthesized in a surface assisted

bottom-up fashion from novel small molecule precursors (Chapter 2). The advancement of

GNR based technologies to new and advanced architectures requires the controlled formation

of functional GNR heterostructures, and to this end, a GNR-porphyrin-GNR heterostructure

was designed and developed which is shown to self-assemble on functionalized surfaces

(Chapter 3). Furthermore, bulk GNRs are shown to have practical applications beyond the

single ribbon scale, acting as functional support materials for inorganic nanoparticles (Chapter

4). This work advances both the development and applications of bottom-up synthesized

GNRs.