Cell Reports Physical Science (Sep 2021)
Narrow-gap, semiconducting, superhard amorphous carbon with high toughness, derived from C60 fullerene
- Shuangshuang Zhang,
- Yingju Wu,
- Kun Luo,
- Bing Liu,
- Yu Shu,
- Yang Zhang,
- Lei Sun,
- Yufei Gao,
- Mengdong Ma,
- Zihe Li,
- Baozhong Li,
- Pan Ying,
- Zhisheng Zhao,
- Wentao Hu,
- Vicente Benavides,
- Olga P. Chernogorova,
- Alexander V. Soldatov,
- Julong He,
- Dongli Yu,
- Bo Xu,
- Yongjun Tian
Affiliations
- Shuangshuang Zhang
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Yingju Wu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Kun Luo
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
- Bing Liu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Yu Shu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Yang Zhang
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
- Lei Sun
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Yufei Gao
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
- Mengdong Ma
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Zihe Li
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Baozhong Li
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Pan Ying
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Key Laboratory of Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
- Zhisheng Zhao
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Corresponding author
- Wentao Hu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Vicente Benavides
- Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Luleå University of Technology, SE-97187 Luleå, Sweden; Department of Materials Science, Saarland University, Campus D3.3, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
- Olga P. Chernogorova
- Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Moscow 119334, Russia
- Alexander V. Soldatov
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai 201203, China; Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02136, USA; Corresponding author
- Julong He
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Dongli Yu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Bo Xu
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China
- Yongjun Tian
- Center for High Pressure Science (CHiPS), State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, Hebei 066004, China; Corresponding author
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 2,
no. 9
p. 100575
Abstract
Summary: New carbon forms that exhibit extraordinary physicochemical properties can be generated from nanostructured precursors under extreme pressure. Nevertheless, synthesis of such fascinating materials is often not well understood. That is the case of the C60 precursor, with irreproducible results that impede further progress in the materials design. Here, the semiconducting amorphous carbon, having band gaps of 0.1–0.3 eV and the advantages of isotropic superhardness and superior toughness over single-crystal diamond and inorganic glasses, is produced from fullerene at high pressure and moderate temperatures. A systematic investigation of the structure and bonding evolution is carried out with complementary characterization methods, which helps to build a model of the transformation that can be used in further high-pressure/high-temperature (high p,T) synthesis of novel nano-carbon systems for advanced applications. The amorphous carbon materials produced have the potential of accomplishing the demanding optoelectronic applications that diamond and graphene cannot achieve.
