Gap opening in double-sided highly hydrogenated free-standing graphene

Conversion of graphene into pure free-standing graphane — where each C atom is sp³ bound to a hydrogen atom — has not been achieved so far, in spite of numerous experimental attempts. Here, we obtain an unprecedented level of hydrogenation (~90% of sp³ bonds) by exposing fully free-standing nano porous samples — constituted by single to few veils of smoothly rippled graphene — to atomic hydrogen in ultra-high-vacuum. Such a controlled hydrogenation of high-quality and high-specific-area samples converts the original conductive graphene into a wide gap semiconductor, with the valence band maximum (VBM) ~3.5 eV below the Fermi level, as monitored by photoemission spectro-microscopy and confirmed by theoretical predictions. In fact, the calculated band structure unequivocally identifies the achievement of a stable, double-side fully hydrogenated configuration, with no trace of pi states and a gap opening in excellent agreement with the experimental results.