Pressure-driven solid-state radical polymerization toward carbon nanothread

Che, G.*; Tang, X.*; Liu, J.*; Lang, P.*; Fei, Y.*; Yang, X.*; Wang, Y.*; Gao, D.*; Wang, X.*; Ju, J.*; et al.

Nano Letters, 25(39), p.14467 - 14472, 2025/09

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c03977

Mechanochemical radical polymerization has unique advantages in the synthesis of polymer due to its reduced solvent consumption and adaptability of insoluble monomers. However, it suffers from the uncontrollable degradation of the formed polymers during reaction and new synthetic strategy with precise controllability needs to be developed. Here, by employing high static pressure up to 30 GPa, we found 1,3,5-trifluorobenzene undergoes radical polymerization by breaking the conjugated -bonds, and forms a carbon nanothread with high selectivity (Polymer-I polymorph). Based on the crystal structure at the threshold pressure and the calculated energy barriers for the bonding pathway, we concluded that the benzene-rings react via a 1-2 radical polymerization pathway. Our work highlights high pressure is a robust method to initiate the solid-state radical polymerization, even for very stable aromatics, and offers fresh insights for the synthesis of polymeric carbon-based materials with high selectivity.

High-pressure polymerization of phenol toward degree-4 carbon nanothread

Yang, X.*; Che, G.*; Wang, Y.*; Zhang, P.*; Tang, X.*; Lang, P.*; Gao, D.*; Wang, X.*; Wang, Y.*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Nano Letters, 25(3), p.1028 - 1035, 2025/01

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c04895

Saturated sp-carbon nanothreads (CNTh) have garnered significant interest due to their predicted high Young's modulus and thermal conductivity. While the incorporation of heteroatoms into the central ring has been shown to influence the formation of CNTh and yield chemically homogeneous products, the impact of pendant groups on the polymerization process remains underexplored. In this study, we investigate the pressure-induced polymerization of phenol, revealing two phase transitions occurring below 0.5 and 4 GPa. Above 20 GPa, phenol polymerizes into degree-4 CNThs featuring hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. Hydrogen transfer of hydroxyl groups was found to hinder the formation of degree-6 nanothreads. Our findings highlight the crucial role of the hydroxyl group in halting further intracolumn polymerization and offer valuable insights for future mechanism research and nanomaterial synthesis.

Anomalous dislocation response to deformation strain in CrFeCoNiPd high-entropy alloys with nanoscale chemical fluctuations

Ying, H.*; Yang, X.*; He, H.*; Yan, A.*; An, K.*; Ke, Y.*; Wu, Z.*; Tang, S.*; Zhang, Z.*; Dong, H.*; et al.

Scripta Materialia, 250, p.116181_1 - 116181_7, 2024/09

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scriptamat.2024.116181

Crystalline fully carboxylated polyacetylene obtained under high pressure as a Li-ion battery anode material

Wang, X.*; Tang, X.*; Zhang, P.*; Wang, Y.*; Gao, D.*; Liu, J.*; Hui, K.*; Wang, Y.*; Dong, X.*; Hattori, Takanori; et al.

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Internet), 12(50), p.12055 - 12061, 2021/12

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c03734

Substituted polyacetylene is expected to improve the chemical stability, physical properties, and additional functions of the polyacetylene backbones, but its diversity is very limited. Here, by applying external pressure on solid acetylenedicarboxylic acid, we report the first crystalline poly-dicarboxylacetylene with every carbon on the trans-polyacetylene backbone bonded to a carboxyl group, which is very hard to synthesize by traditional methods. This unique structure combines the extremely high content of carbonyl groups and high conductivity of a polyacetylene backbone, which exhibits a high specific capacity and excellent cycling/rate performance as a Li-ion battery (LIB) anode. We present a completely functionalized crystalline polyacetylene and provide a high-pressure solution for the synthesis of polymeric LIB materials and other polymeric materials with a high content of active groups.

Phase transition and chemical reactivity of 1H-tetrazole under high pressure up to 100 GPa

Gao, D.*; Tang, X.*; Wang, X.*; Yang, X.*; Zhang, P.*; Che, G.*; Han, J.*; Hattori, Takanori; Wang, Y.*; Dong, X.*; et al.

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 23(35), p.19503 - 19510, 2021/09

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CP02913D

Pressure-induced phase transition and polymerization of nitrogen-rich molecules are widely focused due to its extreme importance for the development of green high energy density materials. Here, we present a study of the phase transition and chemical reaction of 1H-tetrazole up to 100 GPa by using Raman, IR, X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction techniques and theoretical calculation. A phase transition above 2.6 GPa was identified and the high-pressure structure was determined with one molecule in a unit cell. The 1H-tetrazole polymerizes reversibly below 100 GPa, probably through a carbon-nitrogen bonding instead of nitrogen-nitrogen bonding. Our studies updated the structure model of the high pressure phase of 1H-tetrazole, and presented the possible intermolecular bonding route for the first time, which gives new insights to understand the phase transition and chemical reaction of nitrogen-rich compounds, and benefit for designing new high energy density materials.

Pressure-induced Diels-Alder reactions in CH - CF cocrystal towards graphane structure

Wang, Y.*; Dong, X.*; Tang, X.*; Zheng, H.*; Li, K.*; Lin, X.*; Fang, L.*; Sun, G.*; Chen, X.*; Xie, L.*; et al.

Angewandte Chemie; International Edition, 58(5), p.1468 - 1473, 2019/01

https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201813120

Pressure-induced polymerization (PIP) of aromatics is a novel method to construct sp-carbon frameworks, and nanothreads with diamond-like structures were synthesized by compressing benzene and its derivatives. Here by compressing benzene-hexafluorobenzene cocrystal(CHCF), we identified H-F-substituted graphane with a layered structure in the PIP product. Based on the crystal structure determined from the in situ neutron diffraction and the intermediate products identified by the gas chromatography-mass spectrum, we found that at 20 GPa CHCF forms tilted columns with benzene and hexafluorobenzene stacked alternatively, which leads to a [4+2] polymer, and then transfers to short-range ordered hydrogenated-fluorinated graphane. The reaction process contains [4+2] Diels-Alder, retro-Diels-Alder, and 1-1' coupling, and the former is the key reaction in the PIP. Our studies confirmed the elemental reactions of the CHCF for the first time, which provides a novel insight into the PIP of aromatics.

Elongation of plasma channel for electron acceleration

Chen, L.-M.; Nakajima, Kazuhisa; Hong, W.*; Hua, J. F.*; Kameshima, Takashi; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Sugiyama, Kiyohiro*; Wen, X.*; Wu, Y.*; Tang, C.*; et al.

Chinese Optics Letters, 5(S1), p.S133 - S135, 2007/05

Laser electron acceleration in cm-scale capillary-discharge plasma channel

Kameshima, Takashi; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Kando, Masaki; Daito, Izuru; Kawase, Keigo; Fukuda, Yuji; Chen, L. M.*; Homma, Takayuki; Kondo, Shuji; Esirkepov, T. Zh.; et al.

no journal, , 

The acceleration method of laser plasma electron acceleration has very strong electric field, however, the acceleration length is veryshort. Hence, the energy gain of electron beams were confined to be approximately 100 MeV. Recently, this problem was solved by using discharge capillary. The feature of plasma was used that high dense plasma has low refractive index. Distributing plasma inside capillary as low dense plasma is in the center of capillary and high dense plasma is in the external side of capillary can make a laser pulse propaget inside capillary with initial focal spot size. Experiments with capillary were performed in China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). We obtained the results of 4.4 J laser pulse optical guiding in 4 cm capillary and 0.56 GeV electron production in CAEP in 2006, and 1 J laser pulse optical guiding in 4 cm capillary and electron beams productions.