Graphene confined in layered silicate

The real use of graphene in electronic devices, such as field-effect transistors (FET), meets several principal complications. Opening of graphene band gap usually leads to significant drop of electron mobility; graphene-based devices can be prevented from switching into the OFF state. Some of the complications can be overcome by non-trivial combining of graphene with insulating layers in 2D heterostructures, that allow for fabrication of a graphene-based FET with the high ON and OFF switching ratio¹. 

We up-scaled preparation of 2D heterostructures by growing graphene from a nitrogen-carbon precursor inside the confined space of a layered silicate², not by the manual assembly of individual layers. This approach promises simultaneous band-gap opening in graphene and formation of final heterostructures in one step. The resulting structure has the form of a multi-layered sandwich composed of nitrogen-doped (N-doped) graphene-like layers and the single layer sheets of synthetic layered silicate, sodium fluorohectorite².

1. Britnell, L. et al. Science 286, 947–951 (2012).

2. Breu, J. et al. Chem. Mater. 13, 4213–4220 (2001).