Bottom-up synthesis of nitrogen-containing graphene nanoribbons from the tetrabenzopentacene molecular motif

Abstract Atomically-defined graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), which are narrow strips of graphene that feature a quantum confinement-induced bandgap, have shown great promise for applications in the next-generation semiconductor devices. Within this context, although numerous studies have demonstrated the bottom-up synthesis of all-carbon GNRs, a comparatively limited number of reports have focused on the preparation of nitrogen-doped GNRs, with only two general types of architectures demonstrated to date. Herein, we describe the design, synthesis, and characterization of a new class of nitrogen-containing GNRs consisting of repeating tetrabenzopentacene molecular subunits. Our findings may afford additional possibilities and opportunities with regard to the directed bottom-up synthesis of heteroatom-doped carbon-based nanoscale electronics.