Transistors based on carbon nanostructures could become reality in just a few years. Graphene ribbons only a few atoms wide, known as graphene nanoribbons, have special electrical properties that make them promising candidates for the nanoelectronics of the future: As nanoribbons they can become semiconductors and in turn possibly central components of nanotransistors.

The smallest details in the atomic structure of these graphene ribbons have a decisive effect on the size of the energy gap. Since graphene consists of equilateral carbon hexagons, depending on the orientation of the ribbons, the edge may be zigzag-shaped (metal, conductive) or an armchair-shaped (semiconductor). Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research , the Swiss Empa , and the University of California have succeeded in growing ribbons exactly nine atoms wide and a regular "armchair-shaped edge" from precursor molecules.