Bottom-up fabrication of graphene on Ru(0001) via molecular self-assembly

A Cu2(C6O6) metal-organic framework monolayer assembled on silicon carbide grown graphene exhibiting a metallic band structure

We report the self-assembly of a monolayer metal-organic framework of Cu-benzenehexol (BHO) on a graphene/SiC substrate assisted by in situ Cu-catalyzed deprotonation reactions. The density functional theory calculations reveal that the free-standing framework is a semiconductor with a band gap of 0.485 eV. Interestingly, upon adsorption on the substrate, the Fermi level is up-shifted to the conduction band of the free-standing framework due to the n-doped graphene on SiC, while the other band structure features are largely preserved. The metallic nature corroborates the scanning tunneling microscopy images acquired near the Fermi level. This work demonstrates that the graphene substrate, which interacts weakly with the framework, can be used to tune the Fermi level of the metal-organic framework.