NEWS AND VIEWS 22 December 2021 Aran Garcia-Lekue 0 & Daniel Sánchez-Portal 1
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. Thin, flexible, transparent and metallic, it therefore forms an ideal material for many applications, especially for a type of electronics known as spintronics. In spintronic devices, the magnetic moment (spin) of an electron can be just as useful as its charge for storing information and performing logic operations. It has been predicted that when graphene is shaped into nanoribbons, with zigzag edges that are stabilized by carbon–hydrogen bonds, it should exhibit magnetic states that show particular promise for carbon-based electronics1. However, a clear experimental demonstration of this magnetism in nanoribbons that are long enough to be technologically relevant has not been possible. Writing in Nature, Blackwell et al.2 overcome this hurdle — reporting the synthesis and characterization of zigzag graphene nanoribbons in which carbon atoms spaced at regular intervals along the edges have been replaced by nitrogen atoms. Nature 600, 613-614 (2021) doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03768-w 1.Wang, H. et al. Nature Rev. Phys. 3, 791–802 (2021).Article Google Scholar 2.Blackwell, R. E. et al. Nature 600, 647–652 (2021).Article Google Scholar 3.Son, Y.-W., Cohen, M. L. & Louie, S. G. Nature 444, 347–349 (2006).PubMed Article Google Scholar 4.Mishra, S. et al. Nature Nanotechnol. 15, 22–28 (2020).PubMed Article Google Scholar 5.Li, J. et al. Nature Commun. 10, 200 (2019).PubMed Article Google Scholar 6.Lawrence, J. et al. ACS Nano 14, 4499–4508 (2020).PubMed Article Google Scholar 7.Mishra, S. et al. Nature 598, 287–292 (2021).PubMed Article Google Scholar 8.Cai, J. et al. Nature 466, 470–473 (2010).PubMed Article Google Scholar 9.Ruffieux, P. et al. Nature 531, 489–492 (2016).PubMed Article Google Scholar Download references The authors declare no competing interests. Condensed-matter physics Graphene
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03768-w
