Stabilization of graphene nanopore
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division; Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Shenyang National Lab. for Material Science, Inst. of Metal Research
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division
- Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division; Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division; Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
Graphene is an ultrathin, impervious membrane. The controlled introduction of nanoscale pores in graphene would lead to applications that involve water purification, chemical separation, and DNA sequencing. However, graphene nanopores are unstable against filling by carbon adatoms. Using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and density-functional calculations, we report that Si atoms stabilize graphene nanopores by bridging the dangling bonds around the perimeter of the hole. Si-passivated pores remain intact even under intense electron beam irradiation, and they were observed several months after the sample fabrication, demonstrating that these structures are intrinsically robust and stable against carbon filling. Theoretical calculations reveal the underlying mechanism for this stabilization effect: Si atoms bond strongly to the graphene edge, and their preference for tetrahedral coordination forces C adatoms to form dendrites sticking out of the graphene plane, instead of filling the nanopore. Our results provide a novel way to develop stable nanopores, which is a major step toward reliable graphene-based molecular translocation devices.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1133583
- Journal Information:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 111, Issue 21; ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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