High-performance electronic devices made entirely of carbon could be created using low-cost, conventional microfabrication approaches to pattern one-atom-thick layers of carbon called graphene.

Zhongfan Liu at Peking University in Beijing and his collaborators laid a titanium dioxide-based photomask — a small stencil — on a sheet of graphene. The photomask catalyses the formation of hydroxyl radicals when ultraviolet light is shone onto it. This highly reactive species oxidizes graphene only in the irradiated regions — essentially acting like scissors to break carbon bonds and produce patterns (pictured). Using this approach, the authors fabricated an all-carbon transistor that performed similarly to conventional ones. The method is solvent-free, so avoids possible contamination issues.

Credit: AM. CHEM. SOC.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. doi:10.1021/ja109934b (2011)