Fabrication of carbon chains (pseudo carbynes) by stabilization with gold-thiol complex

The quest for crystals of sp¹ bonded carbon chains or carbynes has been a goal of several research groups. In this paper, we report a new method based on chemical synthesis that can produce a large amount of polycrystalline carbon chains. We use a solution of 1-dodecanothiol and gold salts that are subjected to microwave radiation. The resulting material is a white powder containing carbon chains stabilized by thiolates as predicted by Tarakeshwar et al. [1]. We used Raman spectroscopy, X Ray Diffraction, and TEM to characterize the material. After crystallization of the sample, we found a prominent phase, a hexagonal lattice with (P6mm) space group and parameters a = 6.2 Å and c = 8.8 Å. However, other phases might be present. Gold nanoparticles with thiolate on the surface act as catalysts for chain formation and this promotes the rapid growth of carbon chains. Our material is a pseudo carbyne and not a pure carbon allotrope since it contains gold and sulfur. Nevertheless, this work opens the door to fabricating enough material for research on the properties of sp¹ bonded carbon materials.