Covalently bonded phases of sp3 carbon can have advanced optical, mechanical, and thermal properties. In this work, we synthesize a crystalline carbon rich material via pressure-induced polymerization of cubane (C8H8). Cubane was selected as a precursor molecule as it is expected to be an alternative reactive CxHx molecule. The sp3 hybridization of cubane is expected to result in a polymerized product which retains this high sp3 content. The chemical reactivity of cubane under pressure was studied with in-situ vibrational spectroscopy to 30 GPa. Moreover, the structure and bonding of the recovered material were studied by IR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction with synchrotron radiation, which verifies an ordered hydrocarbon material with predominantly sp3 content as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1a shows the in-situ IR spectra, which indicate a pressure-induced polymerization of cubane. Figure 1b shows the theoretical structure of a cubane-derived one-dimensional carbon nanomaterial, which is predicted to be stable under 10 GPa and 500 K. Figure 1c presents a single crystalline diffraction pattern of the product, which can be indexed to a hexagonal lattice with a=4.996(8) Å and c=16.948(49) Å. This study further employs EELS analysis to quantify the ratio of sp2 to sp3 bonds in order to understand the bonding nature of the material.

Exploration of one-dimensional sp3 carbon nanomaterials via pressure-induced polymerization of cubane

254th National Meeting (2017)

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