A few-layer covalent network of fullerenes

Elena Meirzadeh (), Austin M. Evans, Mehdi Rezaee, Milena Milich, Connor J. Dionne, Thomas P. Darlington, Si Tong Bao, Amymarie K. Bartholomew, Taketo Handa, Daniel J. Rizzo, Ren A. Wiscons, Mahniz Reza, Amirali Zangiabadi, Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Andrew C. Crowther, P. James Schuck, D. N. Basov, Xiaoyang Zhu, Ashutosh Giri, Patrick E. Hopkins, Philip Kim, Michael L. Steigerwald (), Jingjing Yang (), Colin Nuckolls () and Xavier Roy ()
Additional contact information
Elena Meirzadeh: Columbia University
Austin M. Evans: Columbia University
Mehdi Rezaee: Harvard University
Milena Milich: University of Virginia
Connor J. Dionne: University of Rhode Island
Thomas P. Darlington: Columbia University
Si Tong Bao: Columbia University
Amymarie K. Bartholomew: Columbia University
Taketo Handa: Columbia University
Daniel J. Rizzo: Columbia University
Ren A. Wiscons: Amherst College
Mahniz Reza: Barnard College
Amirali Zangiabadi: Columbia University
Natalie Fardian-Melamed: Columbia University
Andrew C. Crowther: Barnard College
P. James Schuck: Columbia University
D. N. Basov: Columbia University
Xiaoyang Zhu: Columbia University
Ashutosh Giri: University of Rhode Island
Patrick E. Hopkins: University of Virginia
Philip Kim: Harvard University
Michael L. Steigerwald: Columbia University
Jingjing Yang: Columbia University
Colin Nuckolls: Columbia University
Xavier Roy: Columbia University

Nature, 2023, vol. 613, issue 7942, 71-76

Abstract: Abstract The two natural allotropes of carbon, diamond and graphite, are extended networks of sp3-hybridized and sp2-hybridized atoms, respectively1. By mixing different hybridizations and geometries of carbon, one could conceptually construct countless synthetic allotropes. Here we introduce graphullerene, a two-dimensional crystalline polymer of C60 that bridges the gulf between molecular and extended carbon materials. Its constituent fullerene subunits arrange hexagonally in a covalently interconnected molecular sheet. We report charge-neutral, purely carbon-based macroscopic crystals that are large enough to be mechanically exfoliated to produce molecularly thin flakes with clean interfaces—a critical requirement for the creation of heterostructures and optoelectronic devices2. The synthesis entails growing single crystals of layered polymeric (Mg4C60)∞ by chemical vapour transport and subsequently removing the magnesium with dilute acid. We explore the thermal conductivity of this material and find it to be much higher than that of molecular C60, which is a consequence of the in-plane covalent bonding. Furthermore, imaging few-layer graphullerene flakes using transmission electron microscopy and near-field nano-photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals the existence of moiré-like superlattices3. More broadly, the synthesis of extended carbon structures by polymerization of molecular precursors charts a clear path to the systematic design of materials for the construction of two-dimensional heterostructures with tunable optoelectronic properties.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05401-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:613:y:2023:i:7942:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05401-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05401-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().