James Tour

Graphene, or single-layered graphite, with its high crystallinity and interesting semimetal electronic properties, has emerged as an exciting two-dimensional material showing great promise for the fabrication of nanoscale devices. Thin, elongated strips of graphene that possess straight edges, termed graphene ribbons, gradually transform from semiconductors to semimetals as their width increases, and represent a particularly versatile variety of graphene. Several lithographic, chemical and synthetic procedures are known to produce microscopic samples of graphene nanoribbons, and one chemical vapour deposition process has successfully produced macroscopic quantities of nanoribbons at 950 degrees C. Here we describe a simple solution-based oxidative process for producing a nearly 100% yield of nanoribbon structures by lengthwise cutting and unravelling of multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) side walls. Although oxidative shortening of MWCNTs has previously been achieved, lengthwise cutting is hitherto unreported. Ribbon structures with high water solubility are obtained. Subsequent chemical reduction of the nanoribbons from MWCNTs results in restoration of electrical conductivity. These early results affording nanoribbons could eventually lead to applications in fields of electronics and composite materials where bulk quantities of nanoribbons are required.

10 October 1997 in Science

Journal Article

Conductance of a Molecular Junction

Mark Reed

C. Zhou

C. J. Muller

T. P. Burgin

James Tour

Molecules of benzene-1,4-dithiol were self-assembled onto the two facing gold electrodes of a mechanically controllable break junction to form a statically stable gold-sulfur-aryl-sulfur-gold system, allowing for direct observation of charge transport through the molecules. Current-voltage measurements at room temperature demonstrated a highly reproducible apparent gap at about 0.7 volt, and the conductance-voltage curve showed two steps in both bias directions. This study provides a quantative measure of the conductance of a junction containing a single molecule, which is a fundamental step in the emerging area of molecular-scale electronics.

10 December 2014 in Nature Communications

Journal Article

Laser-induced porous graphene films from commercial polymers

Jian Lin

Zhiwei Peng

Yuanyue Liu

Francisco Ruiz-Zepeda

Ruquan Ye

James Tour

The cost effective synthesis and patterning of carbon nanomaterials is a challenge in electronic and energy storage devices. Here we report a one-step, scalable approach for producing and patterning porous graphene films with three-dimensional networks from commercial polymer films using a CO₂ infrared laser. The sp³-carbon atoms are photothermally converted to sp²-carbon atoms by pulsed laser irradiation. The resulting laser-induced graphene (LIG) exhibits high electrical conductivity. The LIG can be readily patterned to interdigitated electrodes for in-plane microsupercapacitors with specific capacitances of >4 mF cm⁻² and power densities of ~9 mW cm⁻². Theoretical calculations partially suggest that enhanced capacitance may result from LIG’s unusual ultra-polycrystalline lattice of pentagon-heptagon structures. Combined with the advantage of one-step processing of LIG in air from commercial polymer sheets, which would allow the employment of a roll-to-roll manufacturing process, this technique provides a rapid route to polymer-written electronic and energy storage devices.

19 November 1999 in Science

Journal Article

Large On-Off Ratios and Negative Differential Resistance in a Molecular Electronic Device

J. Chen

Mark Reed

A. M. Rawlett

James Tour

A molecule containing a nitroamine redox center (2′-amino-4-ethynylphenyl-4′-ethynylphenyl-5′-nitro-1-benzenethiol) was used in the active self-assembled monolayer in an electronic device. Current-voltage measurements of the device exhibited negative differential resistance and an on-off peak-to-valley ratio in excess of 1000:1.

21 October 2015 in Nature Communications

Journal Article

Atomic cobalt on nitrogen-doped graphene for hydrogen generation

Huilong Fei

Juncai Dong

M. Josefina Arellano-Jiménez

Gonglan Ye

Nam Dong Kim

James Tour

Reduction of water to hydrogen through electrocatalysis holds great promise for clean energy, but its large-scale application relies on the development of inexpensive and efficient catalysts to replace precious platinum catalysts. Here we report an electrocatalyst for hydrogen generation based on very small amounts of cobalt dispersed as individual atoms on nitrogen-doped graphene. This catalyst is robust and highly active in aqueous media with very low overpotentials (30 mV). A variety of analytical techniques and electrochemical measurements suggest that the catalytically active sites are associated with the metal centres coordinated to nitrogen. This unusual atomic constitution of supported metals is suggestive of a new approach to preparing extremely efficient single-atom catalysts.

14 June 2001 in Journal of the American Chemical Society

Journal Article

Functionalization of Carbon Nanotubes by Electrochemical Reduction of Aryl Diazonium Salts: A Bucky Paper Electrode

Jeffrey L. Bahr

Jiping Yang

Dmitry V. Kosynkin

Michael J. Bronikowski

Richard E. Smalley

James Tour

About Me

James M. Tour received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. in synthetic organic and organometallic chemistry from Purdue University, and his postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. After spending 11 years on the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of South Carolina, he joined the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University in 1999, where he is presently the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, and Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering. He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015. Tour was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor at Hebrew University in June 2014. Tour was named “Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine in 2013. He was awarded the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 2012 while at Rice University, won the ACS Nano Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society in 2012, was the Lady Davis Visiting Professor at Hebrew University in June 2011, and was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2009. He won the Feynman Prize in Experimental Nanotechnology in 2008, the NASA Space Act Award in 2008 for his development of carbon nanotube-reinforced elastomers, and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical Society for his achievements in organic chemistry in 2007.

James Tour

James Tour

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