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One-Dimensional Pnictogen Allotropes inside Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes

Hart, M; Chen, J; Michaelides, A; Sella, A; Shaffer, MSP; Salzmann, CG; (2019) One-Dimensional Pnictogen Allotropes inside Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes. Inorganic Chemistry , 58 (22) pp. 15216-15224. 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02190. Green open access

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Abstract

The discovery of phosphorene, a single layer of black phosphorus, has accelerated the investigation of pnictogen nanomaterials, leading to the recent identification of arsenene and antimonene. These two-dimensional nanomaterials display physical properties superior to those of graphene for some applications. Recently, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been filled with P4 molecules from the melt and As4 molecules from the vapor phase. Confined within SWCNTs, polymerization reactions yielded new one-dimensional pnictogen allotropes. Here, we show using high-resolution electron microscopy that such nanostructures can also be observed upon filling SWCNTs from the vapor phase using red phosphorus as the source material. Using larger-diameter SWCNTs, the vapor phase favors the formation of double-stranded phosphorus zigzag ladders observed here for the first time. Overall, however, SWCNTs were generally found to fill more efficiently with liquid phosphorus; substantial decreases in the filling yields were observed for both phosphorus and arsenic filling of narrow SWCNTs using the vapor route. Attempts to extend the pnitogen series using molten antimony gave very low filling yields. However, the antimony zigzag ladder was observed on two occasions, suggesting that this structural motif dominates across the pnictogens. Computational predictions of the encapsulation energies of the various pnictogen nanostructures are consistent with the observed experimental trends, and band gap calculations predict that the single-stranded zigzag chains of all investigated pnictogens are fully metallic. Using SWCNTs with diameters of >1.5 nm revealed a plethora of complex new phosphorus nanostructures, which highlights an exciting new avenue for future work in this area.

Type: Article
Title: One-Dimensional Pnictogen Allotropes inside Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02190
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b02190
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Chemistry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10086813
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