Nanowerk August 27, 2021
Biphenylene network is highly conductive and may prove able to store more electrical energy than even graphene. However, their syntheses remain challenging given the lack of reliable protocols for generating nonhexagonal rings during the in-plane tiling of carbon atoms. An international team of researchers (Germany, Finland, Japan) has grown an ultraflat biphenylene network with periodically arranged four-, six-, and eight-membered rings of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms through an on-surface interpolymer dehydrofluorination (HF-zipping) reaction. The characterization of this biphenylene network by scanning probe methods reveals that it is metallic rather than a dielectric. They expect the interpolymer HF-zipping method to complement the toolbox for the synthesis of other nonbenzenoid carbon allotropes. Biphenylene network could help to avoid the difficulties in electronic circuits, working like a metal in conducting electrons, but without the drawbacks. That would make for more stable conductors, allowing smaller wires to be used in nanoscale electronics…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Analysing larger-scale samples could help to show if a biphenylene anode could increase the efficiency of lithium-ion batteries… Credit: Aalto University / Valeria Azovskaya