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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2012
We studied the self-assembly mechanisms of Graphene Nanoribbon (GNR) with unsaturated edges and demonstrated the ability of GNR to self-assemble into novel stable structures. We proposed three mechanisms which dictate the self-assembly evolution of GNR with unsaturated edges. Using the Adaptive Intermolecular Reactive Empirical Bond-Order (AIREBO) potential, we performed molecular dynamics simulations on initially-planar GNRs with unsaturated edges. The simulation results showed that the self-assembly mechanisms and final conformations of the GNRs correlate well with the proposed GNR self-assembly mechanisms. Furthermore, the simulations also showed the ability of a narrow GNR to self-assemble into various nanostructures, such as tapered graphene nano-rings and graphene nanoscrolls with an embedded nanotube.