Photo credit: ACS Material
Scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder have synthesized graphyne for the first time after a decade of research. This ‘wonder material’ is essentially a new form of carbon that is more rigid than graphene and created using thermodynamics, kinetic control, along with a process called alkyne metathesis.
Since carbon is so useful for industrial applications, scientists have spent countless hours devising ways of constructing new or novel carbon allotropes, with the most well known being graphite (pencil, batteries, etc.) as well as diamonds, which are made from sp2 carbon and sp3 carbon, respectively. However, these traditional methods do not allow for various types of carbon to be synthesized together in a large capacity, and this is where Wei Zhang’s lab group comes in. Zhang, a professor of chemistry at the university, has found a method to allow bonds to self-correct, thus resulting in the creation of novel ordered structures, such as DNA-like polymers. Alkyne metathesis is basically an organic reaction that results in the redistribution and reforming of alkyne chemical bonds, creating graphyne. Graphene-based hard disks are still being developed, and could one day replace the traditional storage formats we use today.
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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, University of Colorado Boulder PhD Chem ’22 graduate and lead author on the paper.