A novel technique was developed for producing long and narrow graphene ribbons with smooth edges. This technique was free of any chemical treatments and involved creation of surface dislocation ribbons by high velocity clusters impacting the graphite surface and electrostatic transferring of the dislocation ribbons to a desired substrate. The width of the ribbons could be controlled by varying the impact velocity of a cluster jet stream from a gas jet impactor. The electrical transport properties were investigated on the ribbons in field effect transistor configuration. The p-type behavior observed under ambient conditions was found to be reversed upon annealing at 180C in a vacuum of 10−7Torr. Charge transfer effects were observed when the degassed graphene was exposed to N2O and NH3.

Graphene Nanoribbons Exfoliated from Graphite Surface Dislocation Bands by Electrostatic Force. A.N.Sidorov, T.Bansal, P.J.Ouseph, G.Sumanasekera: Nanotechnology, 2010, 21[19], 195704