A new strategy for the synthesis of crystalline graphitic nanoribbons

New work from a team of scientists led by Drs. Kuo Li and Haiyan Zheng from the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR) collaborated with Dr. Jing Ju from Peking University found pressure-induced polymerization of 1,4-diphenylbutadiyne produces crystalline graphitic nanoribbons. Their study provides a new strategy to synthesize crystalline bulk graphene nanoribbons with atom-scale ordering and controlled width. The result is published recently in Journal of the American Chemical Society.