skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Nitrogen Doping Enables Covalent-Like π–π Bonding between Graphenes

Journal Article · · Nano Letters
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3]
  1. Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (China)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  3. Georgetown Univ., Washington, DC (United States)

In neighboring layers of bilayer (and few-layer) graphenes, both AA and AB stacking motifs are known to be separated at a distance corresponding to van der Waals (vdW) interactions. In this Letter, we present for the first time a new aspect of graphene chemistry in terms of a special chemical bonding between the giant graphene "molecules". Through rigorous theoretical calculations, we demonstrate that the N-doped graphenes (NGPs) with various doping levels can form an unusual two-dimensional (2D) pi-pi bonding in bilayer NGPs bringing the neighboring NGPs to significantly reduced interlayer separations. The interlayer binding energies can be enhanced by up to 50% compared to the pristine graphene bilayers that are characterized by only vdW interactions. Such an unusual chemical bonding arises from the pi-pi overlap across the vdW gap while the individual layers maintain their in-plane pi-conjugation and are accordingly planar. Moreover, the existence of the resulting interlayer covalent-like bonding is corroborated by electronic structure calculations and crystal orbital overlap population (COOP) analyses. In NGP-based graphite with the optimal doping level, the NGP layers are uniformly stacked and the 3D bulk exhibits metallic characteristics both in the in-plane and along the stacking directions.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation of China; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; 21443012; CHE-1006702; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1261464
Journal Information:
Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 8; ISSN 1530-6984
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 28 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (83)

Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films journal October 2004
Graphene: Status and Prospects journal June 2009
Charge Carriers in Few-Layer Graphene Films journal July 2006
Open and Closed Edges of Graphene Layers journal January 2009
Two Distinct Phases of Bilayer Graphene Films on Ru(0001) journal September 2012
Stacking sequence dependence of graphene layers on SiC (0001−)—Experimental and theoretical investigation journal May 2011
Broken-symmetry states and divergent resistance in suspended bilayer graphene journal September 2009
Interaction-Driven Spectrum Reconstruction in Bilayer Graphene journal August 2011
Growth of Bilayer Graphene on Insulating Substrates journal October 2011
Why Multilayer Graphene on 4 H SiC ( 000 1 ¯ ) Behaves Like a Single Sheet of Graphene journal March 2008
The electronic properties of bilayer graphene journal April 2013
The electronic properties of graphene journal January 2009
Controlling the Electronic Structure of Bilayer Graphene journal August 2006
Metal-insulator transition and phase separation in doped AA-stacked graphene bilayer journal March 2013
Microscopic polarization in bilayer graphene journal April 2011
Localization of Dirac Electrons in Rotated Graphene Bilayers journal March 2010
Graphene Bilayer with a Twist: Electronic Structure journal December 2007
Instabilities of the A A -Stacked Graphene Bilayer journal November 2012
Strong covalent bonding between two graphene layers journal January 2008
Magneto-Opto-Electronic Bistability in a Phenalenyl-Based Neutral Radical journal May 2002
Crystal packing of TCNQ anion π-radicals governed by intermolecular covalent π–π bonding: DFT calculations and statistical analysis of crystal structures journal January 2008
A Stable Neutral Hydrocarbon Radical:  Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Physical Properties of 2,5,8-Tri- tert -butyl-phenalenyl journal February 1999
Intermolecular π-to-π Bonding between Stacked Aromatic Dyads. Experimental and Theoretical Binding Energies and Near-IR Optical Transitions for Phenalenyl Radical/Radical versus Radical/Cation Dimerizations journal October 2004
Aromaticity on the Pancake-Bonded Dimer of Neutral Phenalenyl Radical as Studied by MS and NMR Spectroscopies and NICS Analysis journal March 2006
Resonating Valence-Bond Ground State in a Phenalenyl-Based Neutral Radical Conductor journal July 2005
Synthesis, Intermolecular Interaction, and Semiconductive Behavior of a Delocalized Singlet Biradical Hydrocarbon journal October 2005
Hybrid Density Functional Theory Studies on the Magnetic Interactions and the Weak Covalent Bonding for the Phenalenyl Radical Dimeric Pair journal September 2002
Comparative Analysis of the Multicenter, Long Bond in [TCNE] ·− and Phenalenyl Radical Dimers: A Unified Description of Multicenter, Long Bonds journal June 2009
Intermolecular Covalent π−π Bonding Interaction Indicated by Bond Distances, Energy Bands, and Magnetism in Biphenalenyl Biradicaloid Molecular Crystal journal February 2007
Is There a Lower Limit to the CC Bonding Distances in Neutral Radical π-Dimers? The Case of Phenalenyl Derivatives journal August 2010
Charge Shift Bonding Concept in Radical π-Dimers journal December 2011
Rotational Barrier in Phenalenyl Neutral Radical Dimer: Separating Pancake and van der Waals Interactions journal April 2014
Pancake π–π Bonding Goes Double: Unexpected 4e/All-Sites Bonding in Boron- and Nitrogen-Doped Phenalenyls journal June 2015
Synthetic organic spin chemistry for structurally well-defined open-shell graphene fragments journal February 2011
Phase Control of Graphene Nanoribbon by Carrier Doping: Appearance of Noncollinear Magnetism journal January 2009
Tunable Electronics in Large-Area Atomic Layers of Boron–Nitrogen–Carbon journal July 2013
Tunable metal–insulator transition in double-layer graphene heterostructures journal October 2011
Nitrogen-doped graphene: beyond single substitution and enhanced molecular sensing journal August 2012
Edge-carboxylated graphene nanosheets via ball milling journal March 2012
Highly Air-Stable Phosphorus-Doped n-Type Graphene Field-Effect Transistors journal August 2012
Toward N-Doped Graphene via Solvothermal Synthesis journal March 2011
N-Doping of Graphene Through Electrothermal Reactions with Ammonia journal May 2009
Doping Monolayer Graphene with Single Atom Substitutions journal December 2011
Growth of graphene from solid carbon sources journal November 2010
Formation, stabilities, and electronic properties of nitrogen defects in graphene journal December 2011
Visualizing Individual Nitrogen Dopants in Monolayer Graphene journal August 2011
Connecting Dopant Bond Type with Electronic Structure in N-Doped Graphene journal July 2012
Experimental analysis of charge redistribution due to chemical bonding by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy journal January 2011
Ab-initio calculation of electronic and optical properties of nitrogen and boron doped graphene nanosheet journal July 2014
Semi-metallic to semiconducting transition in graphene nanosheet with site specific co-doping of boron and nitrogen journal February 2014
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Sheets Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition: Synthesis and Influence of Nitrogen Impurities on Carrier Transport journal July 2013
High concentration of nitrogen doped into graphene using N 2 plasma with an aluminum oxide buffer layer journal January 2014
Nitrogen-Doped Graphene: Efficient Growth, Structure, and Electronic Properties journal December 2011
Synthesis of N-Doped Graphene by Chemical Vapor Deposition and Its Electrical Properties journal May 2009
How Much N-Doping Can Graphene Sustain? journal December 2014
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Semiempirical GGA-type density functional constructed with a long-range dispersion correction journal January 2006
A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu journal April 2010
Accurate Molecular Van Der Waals Interactions from Ground-State Electron Density and Free-Atom Reference Data journal February 2009
Accurate and Efficient Method for Many-Body van der Waals Interactions journal June 2012
Chemical accuracy for the van der Waals density functional journal December 2009
Higher-accuracy van der Waals density functional journal August 2010
Accurate Bulk Properties from Approximate Many-Body Techniques journal July 2009
Ab initio molecular simulations with numeric atom-centered orbitals journal November 2009
Sliding Mechanisms in Multilayered Hexagonal Boron Nitride and Graphene: The Effects of Directionality, Thickness, and Sliding Constraints journal March 2015
Cohesive Properties and Asymptotics of the Dispersion Interaction in Graphite by the Random Phase Approximation journal November 2010
The SIESTA method for ab initio order- N materials simulation journal March 2002
Efficient pseudopotentials for plane-wave calculations journal January 1991
X-ray diffraction data for graphite to 20 GPa journal July 1989
Energy of Cohesion, Compressibility, and the Potential Energy Functions of the Graphite System journal October 1956
Interlayer cohesive energy of graphite from thermal desorption of polyaromatic hydrocarbons journal April 2004
The electronic structure of BC3 journal January 1988
Dispersion corrections in graphenic systems: a simple and effective model of binding journal October 2013
Dynamical screening of the van der Waals interaction between graphene layers journal October 2012
Interlayer interaction and relative vibrations of bilayer graphene journal January 2011
The growth of AA graphite on (111) diamond journal December 2008
Two- and three-body interatomic dispersion energy contributions to binding in molecules and solids journal June 2010
Long-range correlation energy calculated from coupled atomic response functions journal May 2014
Graphite Interplanar Bonding: Electronic Delocalization and van der Waals Interaction journal November 1994
Designing band gap of graphene by B and N dopant atoms journal January 2013
Solids and Surfaces: A Chemist's View of Bonding in Extended Structures report July 1988

Cited By (5)

Computational Insights into Materials and Interfaces for Capacitive Energy Storage journal April 2017
CuNi binary alloy catalyst for growth of nitrogen-doped graphene by low pressure chemical vapor deposition journal October 2016
Pancake Bonding: An Unusual Pi-Stacking Interaction journal November 2018
Theoretical investigations of electrical transport properties in CoSb3 skutterudites under hydrostatic loadings journal January 2018
Interactions of Substituted Nitroaromatics with Model Graphene Systems: Applicability of Hammett Substituent Constants To Predict Binding Energies journal March 2018