Carbon nitride powder has been prepared by solid-state reaction between cyanuric chloride or its fluoro analogue and lithium nitride. The determined, by elemental analysis, atomic N/C ratio (1.33) in the synthesized material is entirely consistent with the C 3 N 4 stoichiometry. Combined material characterization data, obtained by Fourier transform infrared, Raman, UV-visible, ( 13 C) magic-angle spinning NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis, and pyrolysis-electron ionization mass spectrometry methods, provide substantial evidence for graphite-like sp 2 -bonded structure composed of building blocks of s-triazine rings bridged by the 3-fold coordinated nitrogen atoms in the bulk carbon nitride. As indicated by X-ray and scanning electron microscopy analytical data, the material is amorphous and changes from turbostratic to more ordered layered graphitic morphology under high pressures. The availability of stoichiometric carbon nitride a-C 3 N 4 in gram quantities, made possible by a developed low-cost synthetic method, facilitates the extensive studies of bulk processing and electromechanical properties, and high-pressure/high-temperature transformations of this material into superhard crystalline polymorphic phases.

Highly purified single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were fluorinated to form "fluorotubes", which were then solvated as individual tubes in various alcohol solvents via ultrasonication. The solvation of individual fluorotubes was verified by dispersing the tubes on a mica substrate and examining them with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Elemental analysis of the tubes reveals that light sonication in alcohol solvents does not remove significant amounts of the fluorine. While these solutions are metastable, they will persist long enough (over a week) to permit solution-phase chemistry to be carried out on the fluorotubes. For example, the solvated fluorotubes can be precipitated out of solution with hydrazine to yield normal, unfluorinated SWNTs, or they can be reacted with sodium methoxide to yield what are apparently methoxylated SWNTs. These reaction products have been examined with elemental analysis and a variety of spectroscopies and microscopies.

Carbon nitride spheres, with diameters ranging from 20 microns to as few as 30 nanometers were prepared by template-directed solid-state or solution reaction of cyanuric chloride or fluoride with lithium nitride. The electron microscopy data on the hollow spheres suggest their multiwalled nanostructure, built by disorderly stacked C 3 N 4 curved layers assembled from triazine rings and nitrogen bridges of pyramidal structure. The closed spherical shape of this form of carbon nitride suggests its use in lubricants, catalyst supports, gas storage, and drug delivery.Carbon nitride (C 3 N 4 ) became an extremely desirable material to produce in view of theoretical predictions 1-5 that the hexagonal (R-and -), cubic (c-) and pseudo-cubic C 3 N 4 polymorphs may possibly be harder than diamond. Many research teams have claimed the observation of tiny micronsize R-, -, and c-C 3 N 4 crystallites in thin films; 6-12 nevertheless, the production of a larger crystals for precise characterization has not been yet accomplished. Graphitic forms of carbon nitride, g-C 3 N 4 , have attracted theoretical 4,5,13-15 and experimental 16-20 attention as well for their potential application as organic semiconductors and precursors for superhard phases.Graphite-like carbon materials are known for their ability to adopt spheroid microstructures, e. g., in fullerenes and their relatives, single-wall and multiwall carbon nanotubes. Substitution of carbon by nitrogen in the planar graphitic structure was predicted to lead to closed forms as well, occurring at N/C atomic ratio greater than 0.2. 21 The possibility of curved structures for carbon nitride phases should be dictated by pyramidal geometry of bridging nitrogen atoms. Indeed, the observations of fullerene-like microstructures 22 and carbon nitride nanotubes 6 of the C 5 N stoichiometry as well as C 3 N 2 nanocage structures in the material with C 3 N 4 bulk composition 23 have been reported. For the nitrogen-rich compositions, such as C 1 N 1 and C 24 N 36 , theoretical calculations also predicted graphitic tubular forms 21,24,25 and a C 60 -derived cage structure, 26 respectively. The PM3 optimization of the molecular cluster with C 24 N 32 composition, 21 which belongs to the C 3 N 4 family, yielded the closed cage structure constructed from the connected eight-membered rings as building blocks resembling arrangement for the -C 3 N 4 phase.