Encapsulation and Evolution of Polyynes Inside Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes
Kunpeng Tang,
Yinong Li,
Yingzhi Chen,
Weili Cui,
Zhiwei Lin,
Yifan Zhang,
Lei Shi
Affiliations
Kunpeng Tang
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Yinong Li
South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, School of Emergent Soft Matter, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Yingzhi Chen
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Weili Cui
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Zhiwei Lin
South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, School of Emergent Soft Matter, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Yifan Zhang
Huzhou Key Laboratory of Environmental Functional Materials and Pollution Control, School of Engineering, Huzhou University, Huzhou 313000, China
Lei Shi
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Functional Molecular Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Polyyne is an sp-hybridized linear carbon chain (LCC) with alternating single and triple carbon–carbon bonds. Polyyne is very reactive; thus, its structure can be easily damaged through a cross-linking reaction between the molecules. The longer the polyyne is, the more unstable it becomes. Therefore, it is difficult to directly synthesize long polyynes in a solvent. The encapsulation of polyynes inside carbon nanotubes not only stabilizes the molecules to avoid cross-linking reactions, but also allows a restriction reaction to occur solely at the ends of the polyynes, resulting in long LCCs. Here, by controlling the diameter of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), polyynes were filled with high yield below room temperature. Subsequent annealing of the filled samples promoted the reaction between the polyynes, leading to the formation of long LCCs. More importantly, single chiral (6,5) SWCNTs with high purity were used for the successful encapsulation of polyynes for the first time, and LCCs were synthesized by coalescing the polyynes in the (6,5) SWCNTs. This method holds promise for further exploration of the synthesis of property-tailored LCCs through encapsulation inside different chiral SWCNTs.
