Effects of edge passivation by hydrogen on electronic structure of armchair graphene nanoribbon and band gap engineering

Abstract

We investigated effects of hydrogen passivation of edges of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) on their electronic properties using first-principles method. The calculated band gaps of the AGNRs vary continually over a range of 1.6 eV as a function of a percentage of s p3 -like bonds at the edges. This provides a simple way for band gap engineering of graphene as the relative stability of s p2 and s p3 -like bonds at the edges of the AGNRs depends on the chemical potential of hydrogen gas, and the composition of the s p2 and s p3 -like bonds at the edges of the AGNRs can be easily controlled experimentally via temperature and pressure of H2 gas. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.