Structural analysis and correlation to the high-pressure reactivity of selected pseudo-stilbene crystals into double-core carbon nanothreads

Double-core carbon nanothreads are a new one-dimensional nanomaterial with promising properties consisting of fully saturated carbons. These materials are obtained by compressing up to 30 GPa pseudo-stilbene compounds, inducing the polymerization between aromatic moieties. Many cases report a competition between topochemical and stress-induced reactivity. Here we propose to study the synthesis of double core nanothreads following the high-pressure crystal structures up to reaction threshold using selected pseudo-stilbene precursors: 4-aminoazobenzene and a mixed crystal of bibenzyl-stilbene. The first one is designed to promote the topochemical pathway, exploiting its electronic properties, thus lowering the pressure reaction threshold and optimizing the product’s yield. The mixed crystal will permit the modulation of the chromophore concentration within the threads, opening the way to the arbitrary tuning of the chemical and physical properties of the resulting nanothread.