Vertical Growth of Amorphous Carbon Ribbons by a Salt-Lattice Trifunctionalized Vapor-Surface-Solid Mechanism

One-dimensional (1D) carbon nanomaterials have attracted significant attention due to their unique directional confinement effect and electronic structure. Conventional synthesis strategies have struggled to achieve vertically aligned architectures with large aspect ratios, scalable yields, and tunable electronic structures. Herein, we propose a sodium chloride (NaCl) salt-assisted template approach to enable the vertical growth of amorphous carbon ribbons (CRs), which have long-range disordered and short-range ordered skeleton structures, with the attributes of a new type of carbon allotrope. The significance of lattice stability, lattice matching, and molecular structure of precursors is investigated to elucidate the trifunctional roles of NaCl microcrystals as induction, catalysis, and growth templates. Furthermore, an advanced vapor-surface-solid (VSS) growth mechanism, stemming from π-π stacking and polymerization of perylene-based skeletons, is validated to afford the vertical growth of CRs. Strikingly, tunable sp²/sp³ carbon ratios allow for modulating the electronic structure. Correspondingly, the representative CRs are p-type semiconductors with a wide band gap of 3.32 eV, exhibiting rapid responsiveness to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The free-standing CR films deliver an out-of-plane conductive network, a large permittivity in the X-wave frequency range, and outstanding stability. Our contribution opens a novel roadmap in terms of innovative synthesis and fascinating applications of the 1D carbon family.