Bottom-Up Synthesis of Metalated Carbyne

J Am Chem Soc. 2016 Feb 3;138(4):1106-9. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5b10725. Epub 2016 Jan 20.

Abstract

Because of stability issues, carbyne, a one-dimensional chain of carbon atoms, has been much less investigated than other recent carbon allotropes such as graphene. Beyond that, metalation of such a linear carbon nanostructure with regularly distributed metal atoms is even more challenging. Here we report a successful on-surface synthesis of metalated carbyne chains by dehydrogenative coupling of ethyne molecules and copper atoms on a Cu(110) surface under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions. The length of the fabricated metalated carbyne chains was found to extend to the submicron scale (with the longest ones up to ∼120 nm). We expect that the herein-developed on-surface synthesis strategy for the efficient synthesis of organometallic carbon-based nanostructures will inspire more extensive experimental investigations of their physicochemical properties and explorations of their potential with respect to technological applications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.