Liquid-Processed 2D Aromatic Amorphous Carbon: Defect Engineering and Universal Transport Scaling
Journal article, 2026
Liquid-processed 2D aromatic amorphous carbons are emerging as a new materials platform in which distorted sp2 networks combine scalability with unconventional electronic transport. Here, we report a deterministic pathway to produce graphene-derived amorphous 2D carbon thin films by combining the water processability of graphene oxide with rapid thermal quenching. During heating, the stepwise removal of oxygen groups generates vacancies and topological defects; rapid traversal of this regime prevents structural recovery and yields a kinetically trapped quasi-amorphous phase, termed quenched reduced graphene oxide (qRGO). XPS and UPS confirm that qRGO maintains predominantly sp2 bonding, indicating a distorted aromatic network rather than a transition to sp3-rich amorphous carbon. Correlative structural and spectroscopic analyses reveal suppressed long-range order and boundary-like defect character in qRGO, contrasting with the vacancy-type defects of nanocrystalline reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Transport measurements show that RGO retains partial coherence and weak localization, whereas qRGO evolves into a strongly disordered regime governed by variable-range hopping. Despite these differences, both systems collapse onto a universal power-law scaling of resistivity. These results demonstrate that thermal-kinetic control of oxygen-driven defect formation provides a scalable route to functional 2D amorphous carbon films.
disordered systems
amorphous 2D materials
graphene-based materials
charge transport
2D phase transition
Author
F. Liscio
Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati del C.N.R.
Andrea Fondacaro
National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Gaetana Petrone
Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche
Federico Chianese
Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics
Jasper Rikkert Plaisier
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste
Sara Fiori
Institut Catala de Nanociencia i Nanotecnologia
National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Orlando Castellano
Universita degli studi - Roma Tre
Alice Apponi
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Nicolò Galvani
Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati del C.N.R.
Verónica Montes García
ISIS - Supramolecular Science and Engineering Institute
Veronica Valentini
Istituto di Struttura della Materia (CNR-ISM)
Stefano Iacobucci
Istituto di Struttura della Materia (CNR-ISM)
Damiano Ricciarelli
Istituto per la microelettronica e microsistemi (CNR-IMM)
Giuseppe Fisicaro
Istituto per la microelettronica e microsistemi (CNR-IMM)
Antonino Lamagna
Istituto per la microelettronica e microsistemi (CNR-IMM)
Giovanni Maria Vinai
National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
E. Placidi
Sapienza University of Rome
Alessandro Bellucci
Istituto di Struttura della Materia (CNR-ISM)
Daniele Maria Trucchi
Istituto di Struttura della Materia (CNR-ISM)
Paolo Samorì
ISIS - Supramolecular Science and Engineering Institute
Alessandro Ruocco
Universita degli studi - Roma Tre
Samuel Lara Avila
Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics
A. Liscio
Consiglo Nazionale Delle Richerche
Small
1613-6810 (ISSN) 1613-6829 (eISSN)
Vol. In PressGraphene Core Project 3 (Graphene Flagship)
European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/881603), 2020-04-01 -- 2023-03-31.
Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Materials Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
Condensed Matter Physics
Infrastructure
Myfab (incl. Nanofabrication Laboratory)
Areas of Advance
Materials Science
DOI
10.1002/smll.202512128