▎ 摘　　要

In recent years, an interesting class of quasi one dimensional graphene-based material, known as graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), has attracted tremendous attention. Owing to the finite width and abundant edge geometries, GNRs present a lot of promising properties and applications, which are quite different from large-area graphene. In this paper we attempt to give an overview of their novel edge effect and the resulting electronic property, magnetic property, etc. We further present some typical preparation methods, defects types, doping, chemical modification and so on. We also provide an outlook of the applications of functional GNRs.