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4272330 
Journal Article 
Mechanochemical Synthesis of Carbon Nanothread Single Crystals 
Li, X; Baldini, M; Wang, T; Chen, B; Xu, ES; Vermilyea, B; Crespi, VH; Hoffmann, R; Molaison, JJ; Tulk, CA; Guthrie, M; Sinogeikin, S; Badding, JV 
2017 
Yes 
Journal of the American Chemical Society
ISSN: 0002-7863
EISSN: 1520-5126 
139 
45 
16343-16349 
English 
29040804 
WOS:000415785900050 
Synthesis of well-ordered reduced dimensional carbon solids with extended bonding remains a challenge. For example, few single-crystal organic monomers react under topochemical control to produce single-crystal extended solids. We report a mechanochemical synthesis in which slow compression at room temperature under uniaxial stress can convert polycrystalline or single-crystal benzene monomer into single-crystalline packings of carbon nanothreads, a one-dimensional sp3carbon nanomaterial. The long-range order over hundreds of microns of these crystals allows them to readily exfoliate into fibers. The mechanochemical reaction produces macroscopic single crystals despite large dimensional changes caused by the formation of multiple strong, covalent C-C bonds to each monomer and a lack of reactant single-crystal order. Therefore, it appears not to follow a topochemical pathway, but rather one guided by uniaxial stress, to which the nanothreads consistently align. Slow-compression room-temperature synthesis may allow diverse molecular monomers to form single-crystalline packings of polymers, threads, and higher dimensional carbon networks.