Heteroatom-Doped Graphene Nanoribbons: Precision Synthesis and Emerging Properties†

Comprehensive Summary

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), which can be considered as a special type of conjugated polymers, are quasi-one-dimensional graphene cutouts with an opened band gap, revealing great potential as functional materials in optoelectronic, spintronic, and energy-related applications. An effective strategy to modulate the properties of GNRs is doping heteroatoms into the π-skeleton. Thanks to the bottom-up synthetic approach, a number of heteroatom-doped GNRs with precise structures have been reported, exhibiting intriguing properties. Nevertheless, a comprehensive summary of the progress of this field has remained elusive. In this review, we summarize the history and advances in bottom-up synthesized heteroatom-doped GNRs, including their synthetic routes, electronic properties, and promising applications. We hope to establish the reliable structure–property relationship, and provide guidance for the molecular design of heteroatom-doped GNRs in the future.