Holey Graphene as a Weed Barrier for Molecules

Matthew L Gethers; John C Thomas; Shan Jiang; Nathan O Weiss; Xiangfang Duan; William A Goddard 3rd; Paul S Weiss

doi:10.1021/acsnano.5b03936

Holey Graphene as a Weed Barrier for Molecules

ACS Nano. 2015 Nov 24;9(11):10909-15. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.5b03936. Epub 2015 Oct 6.

Authors

Matthew L Gethers^{1

2

3}, John C Thomas^{1

2

3}, Shan Jiang^{1

2

3}, Nathan O Weiss^{1

2

3}, Xiangfang Duan^{1

2

3}, William A Goddard 3rd^{1

2

3}, Paul S Weiss^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Materials and Process Simulation Center and ‡Department of Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, California 91125, United States.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California NanoSystems Institute and ⊥Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
³ Department of Chemistry, and #Department of Materials Science, Chemistry, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, California 91125, United States.

PMID: 26426746
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b03936

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of "holey" graphene as a mask against molecular adsorption. Prepared porous graphene is transferred onto a Au{111} substrate, annealed, and then exposed to dilute solutions of 1-adamantanethiol. In the pores of the graphene lattice, we find islands of organized, self-assembled molecules. The bare Au in the pores can be regenerated by postdeposition annealing, and new molecules can be self-assembled in the exposed Au region. Graphene can serve as a robust, patternable mask against the deposition of self-assembled monolayers.

Keywords: chemical patterning; graphene; mask; nanoscience; scanning tunneling microscopy; self-assembly.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.