Effect of nitrophenyl functionalization on the magnetic properties of epitaxial graphene.

Graphene displays unprecedented electronic properties including room-temperature ballistic transport and quantum conductance, and because of its small spin-orbit interaction, graphene has the potential to function as the building block of future spintronic devices. Theoretical calculations indicate that a defective graphene sheet will be simultaneously semiconducting and magnetic; thus it would act as a room-temperature magnetic semiconductor. Recently, ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature has been observed by magnetometry measurements on bulk samples of reduced graphene oxide.