Long-hypothesized 'next generation wonder material' created for first time

Scientists have tried for over a decade to create a new form of carbon called graphyne. Thanks to new research from the University of Colorado Boulder, that endeavor is over.

Graphyne has long been of interest to scientists because of its similarities to the "wonder material" of Graphene, another form of carbon that is highly valued by industry. Despite decades of work, only a few fragments have ever been created.

This research, announced last week in Nature Synthesis, fills a longstanding gap in carbon material science, potentially opening brand-new possibilities for electronics, optics and semiconducting material research.

The whole audience, the whole field, is really excited that this long-standing problem, or this imaginary material, is finally getting realized, said Yiming Hu, the lead author on the paper.

The construction of new or novel carbon allotropes, or forms of carbon, has long been a topic of interest to scientists.

Depending on how sp2, sp3 and sp hybridized carbon are utilized, there are different ways carbon allotropes can be constructed. The most well-known carbon allotropes are diamonds, which are created out of sp2 carbon and sp3 carbon.

Scientists have created various allotropes using traditional chemistry methods, including fullerene and Graphene, which won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

These methods don't allow for the different types of carbon to be synthesised together in any sort of large capacity, like what is required for graphyne, which has left the theorized material to have unique electron conducting, mechanical and optical.

Those in the field reached out to the lab group because of the need for the unconventional.

A professor of chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder, Zhang studies chemistry that allows bonds to self-correct and allow for the creation of novel ordered structures.

The lab group decided to give it a try after being approached.

Creating graphyne is a long-standing question, but since the synthetic tools were limited, the interest went down.

A process called alkyne metathesis involves the redistribution, or cutting and reforming, of alkyne chemical bonds, a type of hydrocarbon with at least one carbon- carbon triple covalent bond.

There is a big difference between Graphyne and graphene, but in a good way. That is why people are excited.

While the material has been created, the team still wants to understand how it can be created on a large scale and how it can be manipulated.

We are trying to explore this novel material from multiple dimensions, both theoretically and scientifically, from atomic-level to real devices.

These efforts should aid in figuring out how the material can be used for industry applications.

We hope in the future that we can lower the costs and simplify the procedure so that people can benefit from our research, Hu said.

Without the support from the physics department, this work probably wouldn't have been done.

More information: Yiming Hu et al, Synthesis of γ-graphyne using dynamic covalent chemistry, Nature Synthesis (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s44160-022-00068-7 Citation: Long-hypothesized 'next generation wonder material' created for first time (2022, May 21) retrieved 21 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-long-hypothesized-material.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.