Evidence of Diamond Nanowires Formed inside Carbon Nanotubes from Diamantane Dicarboxylic Acid

Abstract

Carbon is a girl′s best friend: Carbon‐based nanowires have been produced during thermal annealing of diamantane‐4,9‐dicarboxylic acid in carbon nanotubes under hydrogen atmosphere (see scheme). HR‐TEM images, Raman spectra, and structural transformations observed under an intense electron beam suggest that the as‐produced carbon‐based nanowires are sp3 diamond nanowires, consistent with our computational results.

A step toward polytwistane: synthesis and characterization of C2-symmetric tritwistane

“…Attempts to synthesize polytwistane in a more direct fashion from acetylene itself are ongoing in our laboratory and will be reported in due course. The relationship of polytwistane to recently reported diamond nanowires 15 and ultra-small carbon nanotubes 16 is also under investigation. To a solution of tetracyclotetradecadiene 11 (30.0 mg, 0.161 mmol, 1.00 eq.)…”

Cyclic Diamondoid Structures with Shared Vertices, Edges, or 6-membered Rings

“…Inside nanotubes of sufficiently large diameter (larger than 1 nm), diamantane-4,9-dicarboxylic acid is converted into a diamond nanowire ([121212…]polymantane), a zigzag long hexagon-sharing polymantane. 35 This is explained by the "capillary force" pulling the long molecules into the nanotube where the resulting huge pressure (above 0.4 GPa) causes decarboxylation and polymerization in a hydrogen-rich surrounding. Electron-beam irradiation dehydrogenates the enclosed polymantane into onion nanotubes.…”

Diamond Nanowires: Fabrication, Structure, Properties and Applications

“…The Raman spectra show the as-prepared nanowires are hybrid diamond-graphite nanowires. The DNW cores are 5-6 nm in diameter and grow along the [110] direction. The experimental results showed that the N 2 play an important role on the growth of wire-like diamond grains, which is consistent with the results of Arenal's [14].…”

“…However, the fusion reaction of adamantane into diamond nanowires has been shown to be energetically unfavorable [107]. Zhang et al presented theoretical and experimental evidence for the feasibility of a fusion reaction of diamondoid derivatives containing relatively reactive functional groups, diamantane-4,9-dicarboxylic acid to 1D diamond nanowires inside CNTs [110]. The bisapical diamondoid diacid is more reactive than the pristine diamondoid, requiring milder reaction conditions.…”