Scientists successfully create Graphyne; new-gen wonder material and new Carbon allotrope

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have been able to successfully synthesise a new form of carbon called Graphyne. The research was announced on May 9, 2022, in the journal called Nature Synthesis. Scientists claim that the new material fills a longstanding gap in carbon material science, opening brand-new possibilities for several industries including semiconductors, optics and electronics.  

Graphyne is now a real material

The lead author of Nature Synthesis, Yiming Hu (PhDChem'22) said that "the whole audience, the whole field is really excited that this long-standing problem or this imaginary material, is finally getting realised." Over decades, scientists have successfully synthesised other allotropes of Carbon including Fullerene and Graphene, also known as the wonder material. Now they have created another form of Carbon, theorised for several years, called Graphyne. 

Wei Zhang at CU Boulder says that the creation of Graphyne has been a "really old, long-standing question, but since the synthetic tools were limited, the interest went down." Adding to it, Zhang says "we brought out the problem again and used a new tool to solve an old problem that is really important." Zhang's lab group has created Graphyne with a process called Alkyne Metathesis. "We are really trying to explore this novel material from multiple dimensions, both experimentally and theoretically, from atomic-level to real devices," mentions Zhang. 

Can Graphyne be the next Wonder Material?

To understand why Graphyne can be the next wonder material, one should understand how Graphene, another form of carbon is of so much interest to scientists. In the simplest terms, Graphene is extremely lightweight and flexible when compared to other materials such as steel. Additionally, it is about 200 times stronger than the same amount of steel. On top of this, Graphene is a good conductor of both heat and electricity (via insights.globalspec.com). 

Such a material has the power to revolutionise several industries, including transport, wearable electronics, sustainable construction and super-fast computers. Building upon that, Graphyne might be able to rival the conductivity of Graphene, with even more control, opening more opportunities for the material to be used in several industries. While the material has been created, the team lead by Zhang is looking into more ways to produce the material on a large scale.

Image: YIMING HU