Scientists have developed a chemical method for making carbon ribbons less than 10nm wide and one atom thick, with semiconducting properties making them suitable for use in electronics applications.

To create the graphene ribbons, Hongjie Dai and colleagues at Stanford University chemically exfoliate graphite, loosening individual layers of graphene by giving the graphite a 60-second bath in three per cent hydrogen in argon gas at 1,000°C. The grapheme is then ‘torn’ into strips by sonicating the material in solution. Previously, scientists used lithographic patterning to cut graphene into ribbons, but using the chemical method produces narrower ribbons with far smoother edges.

According to Dai, the slim nanoribbons have useful properties at room temperature that make them promising electronic components for field-effect transistors and sensors. It was also found that the nanoribbons that were less than 10 nm wide were semiconducting, unlike their carbon nanotube cousins, which exist as a mix of semiconducting and metallic materials.

Dai says that the electronic performance of nanoribbon-based devices still needs further investigation. In the meantime, he says, the nanoribbons “will provide an experimental test bed for studies of many fundamental electrical, spectroscopic, and spin properties predicted for these materials.”