Nitrogen doping effects on the structure of graphene

Graphene and nitrogen doped graphene have been prepared by modified Hummers’ method and the following ammonia heat-treatment process, respectively. The effects of N-doping on the structure of graphene have been systematically investigated by various characterization techniques. SEM, TEM, BET, Raman and XRD analysis were used to distinguish the difference of the microstructures; and FT-IR, XPS, especially XANES were performed to elucidate the bonding information such as C-N. The effect of nitrogen doping on the structure of graphene has been obtained. More defects are present on nitrogen doped graphene as elucidated by BET, XRD, Raman, and XANES characterizations. XANES analysis also indicates that the N-doping decreases the surface oxygen-containing groups.     

Electronic structure of graphene/Y2C heterostructure and related doping effect

Until now, many attempts have been made to dope graphene in various ways, but each method turned out to have pros and cons. In this study, to overcome the limitations of doping methods, yttrium hypocarbide (Y₂C) is investigated as one prospective material to dope graphene, using density functional theory calculations. In monolayer Y₂C, the anionic electrons localized away from Y atomic layers are confirmed to contribute to occupied states near the Fermi level. Next, we investigate the electronic structure of graphene in heterojunction with Y₂C. Anionic electrons of Y₂C occupy the empty states of graphene in graphene/Y₂C heterostructure, which makes the Dirac cone of graphene located at about 1.7 eV below the Fermi level. Such charge transfer of anionic electrons to graphene and the flatness of electric cloud of anionic electrons leads to evenly n-doped graphene in graphene/Y₂C heterostructure. This suggests that Y₂C is a good candidate to dope graphene.     

Enhanced Seebeck effect in graphene devices by strain and doping engineering

In this work, we investigate the possibility of enhancing the thermoelectric power (Seebeck coefficient) in graphene devices by strain and doping engineering. While a local strain can result in the misalignment of Dirac cones of different graphene sections in the k-space, doping engineering leads to their displacement in energy. By combining these two effects, we demonstrate that a conduction gap as large as a few hundred meV can be achieved and hence the enhanced Seebeck coefficient can reach a value higher than 1.4 mV/K in graphene doped heterojunctions with a locally strained area. Such hetero-channels appear to be very promising for enlarging the applications of graphene devices as in strain and thermal sensors.     

氧掺杂对钠在石墨烯上吸附性能的影响

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法,研究了本征石墨烯(P-graphene)和氧掺杂的石墨烯(O-graphene)吸附钠原子的吸附能、电荷密度、态密度以及储存量.结果表明,两种石墨烯中,钠原子的最佳吸附位置都是H位. O-graphene对钠原子的吸附能是-4.347 eV,比P-graphene对钠原子的吸附能(-0.71 eV)低很多. O-graphene中钠原子与氧原子和碳原子发生轨道杂化,P-graphene中没有杂化现象. O-graphene能够吸附10个钠原子,较P-graphene多.因此,O-graphene更适合储钠.     

Oxidation of Zn in UHV environment at low temperature

Thermal oxidation of polycrystalline Zn foils at 5 × 10⁻⁷ Torr oxygen pressure and at room temperature, 50 °C, 70 °C, 90 °C and 110 °C was studied. In situ photoemission spectroscopy using synchrotron light with photon energy of 57 eV was used to monitor the formation of ZnO and to determine the thickness of the oxide overlayer. At the initial oxidation, the oxidation rate follows a two-stage logarithmic equation and later trends to saturate at a certain thickness depending on the oxidation temperature. The saturated thickness was found to increase with the oxidation temperature. The two-stage oxidation process may be governed by two kinds of space charge presumably formed in the thin oxide overlayer.     

铁（Fe）原子改性石墨烯对沙林分子的吸附性质研究

利用第一性原理密度泛函理论,系统研究了本征石墨烯、单个Fe原子修饰石墨烯对沙林分子的吸附性质. 吸附能、电子态密度和密立根电荷密度等相关性质计算表明：本征石墨烯对沙林分子的吸附作用为弱的物理吸附;Fe原子的引入,明显增强了石墨烯基底对沙林的吸附作用,沙林分子态密度更加弥散,并且向低能方向移动,沙林分子与Fe改性石墨烯体系之间存在明显的电荷转移,吸附体系更加稳定. 相应工作的开展,为沙林毒剂分子的识别、防护提供了理论依据.     

Freestanding graphene writing on a silicon carbide wafer

Freestanding graphene on a trench has been fabricated extensively using a transfer process of chemical vapor deposition grown graphene. Here, we demonstrate that freestanding graphene can be grown directly on a trench without a transfer process. A shallow trench was made on a 6H–SiC(0001) wafer using a focused ion beam lithography. The shallow trench was heated to a high temperature under Ar atmosphere. The heat treatment made the shallow trench become deeper and wider. Subsequently, epitaxial graphene was floating on the trench, resulting in freestanding graphene, where underlying bulk SiC was self-etched after the growth of epitaxial graphene. The freestanding graphene on a trench was characterized using Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. Such freestanding graphene writing can be applied to semiconductor fabrication process of freestanding graphene devices without a transfer process.     

石墨烯与二氧化氮的吸附特性研究

由于石墨烯的二维结构以及其超高的比表面积,因此石墨烯可以感应到一个分子量级的变化,这使得其在气体传感方面具有很大的优势。文章通过计算和分析了石墨烯与二氧化氮的系统的能带结构,态密度和电荷分布情况来说明石墨烯吸附二氧化氮后的特性变化。这有助于进一步了解了石墨烯的特性,同时进一步推动石墨烯传感的发展。     

石墨烯与二氧化氮的吸附特性研究

由于石墨烯的二维结构以及其超高的比表面积,因此石墨烯可以感应到一个分子量级的变化,这使得其在气体传感方面具有很大的优势.文章通过计算和分析了石墨烯与二氧化氮的系统的能带结构,态密度和电荷分布情况来说明石墨烯吸附二氧化氮后的特性变化.这有助于进一步了解了石墨烯的特性,同时进一步推动石墨烯传感的发展.     

Influence of the ultrasound cavitation intensity on reduced graphene oxide functionalization

Graphene is a valuable and useful nanomaterial due to its exceptionally high tensile strength, electrical conductivity and transparency, as well as the ability to tune its materials properties via functionalization. One of the most important features needed to integrate functionalized graphene into products via scalable processing is the effectiveness of graphene dispersion in aqueous and organic solvents. In this study, we aimed to achieve the functionalization of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) by sonication in a one-step process using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a model molecule to be bound to the rGO surface. We investigated the influence of the sonication energy on the efficacy of rGO functionalization. The correlation between the performance of the high-intensity ultrasonic horn and the synthesis of the PVA functionalized rGO was thoroughly investigated by TGA coupled with MS, and IR, Raman, XPS, Laser diffraction, and SEM analysis. The results show that the most soluble PVA-functionalized rGO is achieved at 50% of the ultrasonic horn amplitude. Analysis of cavitation dynamics revealed that in the near vicinity of the horn it is most aggressive at the highest amplitude (60%). This causes rGO flakes to break into smaller domains, which negatively affects the functionalization process. On the other hand, the maximum of the pressure pulsations far away from the horn is reached at 40% amplitude, as the pressure oscillations are attenuated significantly in the 2-phase flow region at higher amplitudes. These observations corelate well with the measured degree of functionalization, where the optimum functionalized rGO dispersion is reached at 50% horn amplitude, and generally imply that cavitation intensity must be carefully adjusted to achieve optimal rGO functionalization.     

Fully spin-polarized transport induced by B doping in graphene nanoribbons

B-doping induced spin polarization in zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons is studied by density functional calculations by two kinds of doping: (1) doping only one B atom in the central scattering region; (2) periodically doping in the whole system. It is found that even a single B dopant may cause large spin polarization in the current, which can be understood by the breaking of spin-degeneracy due to the impurity atoms and the Fermi level shift resulting from the hole-donating of the B atoms. More interestingly, 100% spin polarized current under finite bias is obtained through periodical doping although the transmission function around the Fermi level is not 100% spin polarized. This can be interpreted by a rigid shift model of the special band structures of the left and right leads in this case. It demonstrates that only transmission function at equilibrium conditions is not sufficient in the study of electron transport, but current should be considered in certain situations.     

Tunable band structure effects on ballistic transport in graphene nanoribbons

Graphene nanoribbons (GNR) in mutually perpendicular electric and magnetic fields are shown to exhibit dramatic changes in their band structure and electron transport properties. A strong electric field across the ribbon induces multiple chiral Dirac points, closing the semiconducting gap in armchair GNRs. A perpendicular magnetic field induces partially formed Landau levels as well as dispersive surface-bound states. Each of the applied fields on its own preserves the even symmetry Ek=E−k of the subband dispersion. When applied together, they reverse the dispersion parity to be odd and gives Ee,k=−Eh,−k and mix the electron and hole subbands within the energy range corresponding to the change in potential across the ribbon. This leads to oscillations of the ballistic conductance within this energy range.     

Surface work function of chemically derived graphene: A first-principles study

Using first-principles calculations within the framework of density-functional theory, we systematically study the modulation effect of chemical decoration including hydrogenation, fluorination, and oxidization on the surface work function of graphene. The chemical decoration is effective approach to modulate the surface work function, which expands the space to design diverse nano-devices based on graphene. Moreover, we also find some un-expectation chemically decorated cases which do not follow the traditional rule of “electronegative (electropositive) adsorbates, which increase (decrease) the work function of the surface”. Such a phenomenon is mainly derived from the charge redistribution induced by the bonding process between adsorbates and carbon atoms along with the chemical decoration.     

Modulation of rectification and negative differential resistance in graphene nanoribbon by nitrogen doping

By applying the nonequilibrium Green?s function formalism combined with density functional theory, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of two nitrogen-doped armchair graphene nanoribbon-based junctions M1 and M2. In the left part of M1 and M2, nitrogen atoms are doped at two edges of the nanoribbon. In the right part, nitrogen atoms are doped at one edge and at the center for M1 and M2, respectively. Obvious rectifying and negative differential resistance behaviors are found, which are strongly dependent on the doping position. The maximum rectification and peak-to-valley ratios are up to the order of 10⁴ in M2.     

Perfect spin-filtering in p-aminophenol functionalized zigzag graphene nanoribbons: The role of sp3 hybridized nitrogen

Covalent functionalization of graphene is recently developed from the formation of sp³ hybridized carbon atom (sp³-C) to the sp³ hybridized nitrogen (sp³-N) at the anchoring site. Here, we investigated the electronic structures and transport properties of the zigzag graphene nanoribbons functionalized by covalently bonding of p-aminophenol (p-AP) molecule. First principles results demonstrate that the formed sp³-N plays a vital role in determining the electronic structure and transport properties of the system, resulting in a halfmetallic characteristic with a perfect spin-filtering behavior (100%). Interestingly, the performance of the spin-filtering is find to be insensitive to the sub-structures of the molecule. Our findings reveal the importance of sp³-N and suggest a new mechanism for realizing high-performance spin-filtering devices with functionalized graphene.     

Thermal stability and chemical bonding states of AlOxNy/Si gate stacks revealed by synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy

Annealing-temperature dependence of the thermal stability and chemical bonding states of AlO_xN_y/SiO₂/Si gate stacks grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using new chemistry was investigated by synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SRPES). Results have confirmed the formation of the AlN and AlNO compounds in the as-deposited samples. Annealing the AlO_xN_y samples in N₂ ambient in 600-800 °C promotes the formation of SiO₂ component. Meanwhile, there is no formation of Al-O-Si and Al-Si binding states, suggesting no interdiffusion of Al with the Si substrate. A thermally induced reaction between Si and AlO_xN_y to form volatile SiO and Al₂O is suggested to be responsible for the full disappearance of the Al component that accompanies annealing at annealing temperature of 1000 °C. The released N due to the breakage of the Al-N bonding will react with the SiO₂ interfacial layer and lead to the formation of the Si₃-N-O/Si₂-N-O components at the top of Si substrate. These results indicate high temperature processing induced evolution of the interfacial chemistry and application range of AlO_xN_y/Si gate stacks in future CMOS devices.     

The hyperconjugation effect on the graphene counterparts based on silicon and germanium

Bending of the A = A (A of the group IVA) double bond neighboring is rationalized by the hyperconjugation phenomenon analysis. The bending is also observed for the high sized linear, cyclic or graphene-like compounds that imply the conjugated double bonds. The electronic delocalization takes place between occupied σ(π) and unoccupied π*(σ*) orbitals especially for compound implying Si and Ge atoms. Leading to rippled structure, this phenomenon affects the silicene and germane thickness sheets and probably would have some consequences on the properties of such compounds when they will be involved in the industries in the future. However we introduce a new parameter to assess the thickness of graphenic structures when the hyperconjugation takes place in the bonding framework. The study has been undertaken at high levels of theory like B3LYP/6-311 + G(3df,2p).     

应用SRCD和FTIR分析超高压处理对蘑菇多酚氧化酶二级结构的影响

应用同步辐射紫外真空圆二色光谱(SRCD)、傅里叶变换红外光谱(FTIR)和荧光光谱研究了超高压(HHP)处理对蘑菇多酚氧化酶(PPO)二级结构和三级结构的影响。HHP处理使蘑菇PPO的α-螺旋含量明显减少,二级结构发生改变。通过SRCD光谱和FTIR光谱分析得出的未处理或HHP处理蘑菇PPO的二级结构含量均存在一定的差异,这种差异可能是由于测量温度、酶液浓度和分析方法等多种因素造成的。荧光光谱表明,HHP处理后,蘑菇PPO溶液荧光光谱的强度降低,最大发射峰发生了红移,表明HHP处理改变了蘑菇PPO分子的三级结构。