Long-Range Ordered Carbon Clusters: A Crystalline Material with Amorphous Building Blocks

Authors

Lin Wang, Carnegie Institution of WashingtonFollow
Bingbing Liu, Jilin University
Hui Li, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Wenge Yang, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Yang Ding, Argonne National Laboratory
Stanislav V. Sinogeikin, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Yue Meng, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Zhenxian Liu, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Xiao Cheng Zeng, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Wendy L. Mao, Stanford University

Date of this Version

8-2012

Citation

SCIENCE, VOL 337, 17 AUGUST 2012, pp. 825-828.

Comments

U. S. government work.

Abstract

Solid-state materials can be categorized by their structures into crystalline (having periodic translation symmetry), amorphous (no periodic and orientational symmetry), and quasi-crystalline (having orientational but not periodic translation symmetry) phases. Hybridization of crystalline and amorphous structures at the atomic level has not been experimentally observed. We report the discovery of a long-range ordered material constructed from units of amorphous carbon clusters that was synthesized by compressing solvated fullerenes. Using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and quantum molecular dynamics simulation, we observed that, although carbon-60 cages were crushed and became amorphous, the solvent molecules remained intact, playing a crucial role in maintaining the long-range periodicity. Once formed, the high-pressure phase is quenchable back to ambient conditions and is ultra-incompressible, with the ability to indent diamond.