Scalable Synthesis and Characterization of Multilayer γ‑Graphyne, New Carbon Crystals with a Small Direct Band Gap

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 144; no. 39; pp. 17999 - 18008
• Main Authors: Desyatkin, Victor G., Martin, William B., Aliev, Ali E., Chapman, Nathaniel E., Fonseca, Alexandre F., Galvão, Douglas S., Miller, Ericka Roy, Stone, Kevin H., Wang, Zhong, Zakhidov, Dante, Limpoco, F. Ted, Almahdali, Sarah R., Parker, Shane M., Baughman, Ray H., Rodionov, Valentin O.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 05-10-2022; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: aromatic compounds; diffraction; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; lattices; materials; polymerization
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c06583

γ-Graphyne is the most symmetric sp2/sp1 allotrope of carbon, which can be viewed as graphene uniformly expanded through the insertion of two-carbon acetylenic units between all the aromatic rings. To date, synthesis of bulk γ-graphyne has remained a challenge. We here report the synthesis of multilayer γ-graphyne through crystallization-assisted irreversible cross-coupling polymerization. A comprehensive characterization of this new carbon phase is described, including synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction, electron diffraction, lateral force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. Experiments indicate that γ-graphyne is a 0.48 eV band gap semiconductor, with a hexagonal a-axis spacing of 6.88 Å and an interlayer spacing of 3.48 Å, which is consistent with theoretical predictions. The observed crystal structure has an aperiodic sheet stacking. The material is thermally stable up to 240 °C but undergoes transformation at higher temperatures. While conventional 2D polymerization and reticular chemistry rely on error correction through reversibility, we demonstrate that a periodic covalent lattice can be synthesized under purely kinetic control. The reported methodology is scalable and inspires extension to other allotropes of the graphyne family.