Benzene-derived carbon nanothreads

Abstract

Low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials such as fullerenes, nanotubes, graphene and diamondoids have extraordinary physical and chemical properties. Compression-induced polymerization of aromatic molecules could provide a viable synthetic route to ordered carbon nanomaterials, but despite almost a century of study this approach has produced only amorphous products. Here we report recovery to ambient pressure of macroscopic quantities of a crystalline one- dimensional sp(3) carbon nanomaterial formed by high-pressure solid-state reaction of benzene. X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, solid-state NMR, transmission electron microscopy and first-principles calculations reveal close- packed bundles of subnanometre-diameter sp(3)-bonded carbon threads capped with hydrogen, crystalline in two dimensions and short-range ordered in the third. These nanothreads promise extraordinary properties such as strength and stiffness higher than that of sp(2) carbon nanotubes or conventional high-strength polymers. They may be the first member of a new class of ordered sp(3) nanomaterials synthesized by kinetic control of high-pressure solid-state reactions.

Monochromated Low-Dose Aberration-Corrected Transmission Electron Microscopy of Diamondoid Carbon Nanothreads

“…In addition, the solid-state synthesis is entirely driven by kinetic control and devoid of waste, which may open up new routes to fabricate efficient carbon nanomaterials [3,4]. Therefore, it is important to probe the atomic and chemical structure of nanothreads to elucidate the reaction mechanisms that result in their synthesis and determine their macroscale physical and chemical properties.X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies and density functional theory (DFT) calculations strongly suggest that carbon nanothreads form a well-aligned, hexagonally-packed structure with an inter-thread spacing of ~6.5 angstroms [1]. Likewise, electron diffraction patterns reveal higher order reflections that agree with these experimentally and theoretically-derived models.…”

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Carbon nanothreads are the first in a new class of one-dimensional sp 3 carbon nanomaterials that was recently discovered through compression-induced polymerization of benzene in a Paris-Edinburgh cell [1]. Their diamond-like structure is predicted to have interesting mechanical properties that are on par with or greater than carbon nanotubes [2].

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Термическая Устойчивость Гидрированных Углеродных Нанотрубок Малого Диаметра

“…Из двух типов рассмотренных нами гидрирован-ных УНТ особый интерес представляют УНТ (3.0)Н. Недавно открытые алмазные нанонитки (diamond nanothreads) [16] получаются из этих УНТ в результа-те ряда трансформаций Стоуна−Уэльса (Stone−Wales, SW) [17] -поворотов связей С−С вместе с адсорбиро-ванными атомами водорода на угол ∼ 90…”

Is graphane the most stable carbon monohydride?

“…This transition leads to splitting 4f → 2 · 12i + 1 · 4f , producing a structure (Fig. 1 c) which can be described as a nanothread [13,14] bundle.…”

“…There are quite a number of other examples: e.g. solid benzene (though at ambient pressure it can exist at low temperatures only [8]), molecular solid phases of cubane/cuneane [9][10][11][12] (which can be obtained as metastable forms through complicated organic synthesis), polymeric nanothreads (predicted in [13] and later obtained by high pressure synthesis [14]) and even well-known polysterene. In the case of carbon, there is nothing astonishing that even its metastable forms can have interesting applications.…”