Synthetic carbon allotropes are fascinating for their outstanding properties and potential applications. Scientists have devoted decades to synthesizing new types of carbon materials. However, a two-dimensional fullerene, which possesses a unique structure, has not been successfully synthesized until now.
A research group led by Prof. Zheng Jian from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) developed a new interlayer bonding cleavage strategy to prepare a two-dimensional monolayer polymeric fullerene.
The researchers prepared magnesium intercalated C60 bulk crystals as the precursor to the exfoliation reaction. They then utilized a ligand-assisted cation exchange strategy to cleave the interlayer bonds into bulk crystals, which led to the bulk crystals being exfoliated into monolayer nanosheets.