Narrow-gap, semiconducting, superhard amorphous carbon with high toughness, derived from C60 fullerene

New carbon forms exhibiting extraordinary physico-chemical properties can be generated from nanostructured precursors under extreme pressure. Nevertheless, synthesis of such fascinating materials is often not well understood that results, as the case C60 precursor, in irreproducibility results and impeding further progress design. Here semiconducting amorphous having bandgaps 0.1-0.3 eV advantages isotropic superhardness superior toughness over single-crystal diamond inorganic glasses are produced transformation fullerene at high pressure moderate temperatures. A systematic investigation structure bonding evolution was carried out by using rich arsenal complimentary characterization methods, which helps to build a model used p,T novel nanocarbon systems for advanced applications. The have potential demanding optoelectronic applications graphene cannot achieve