In this paper, we apply the first-principle theory to explore how the electronic structures of armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) are affected by chemical modifications. The edge addends include H, F, N, NH2, and NO2. Our theoretical results show that the energy gaps are highly tunable by controlling the widths of AGNRs and addends. The most interesting finding is that N-passivated AGNRs with various widths are metallic due to the unique electronic features of N-N bonds. This property change of AGNRs (from semiconducting to metallic) is important in developing graphene-based devices.
@article{arxiv.0711.1700,
title = {Edge Effects on the Electronic Structures of Chemically Modified Armchair Graphene Nanoribbons},
author = {Hao Ren and Qunxiang Li and Haibin Su and Q. W. Shi and Jie Chen and Jinlong Yang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0711.1700},
year = {2007}
}