Molecular doping of graphene with ammonium groups

Successful doping of an electronic material entails the existence of stable dopant configurations that cause a shift in the Fermi level without altering significantly the electronic states of the host system. The selection of chemical groups that satisfy these conditions when adsorbed on graphene is still an open challenge. Here we show with first-principles calculations that ammonium groups meet the criteria of stable physisorption and efficient doping of graphene. We also describe processes of deactivation of ammonium dopants through their dissociation over graphene impurities or nanoribbon edges. Finally, we show that carbon nanotubes can be used to spatially confine the dopants and avert their edge-related de-activation.