A new ‘flash’ process can turn carbon black into functionalized nanodiamond and other materials. The carbon atoms evolved through several phases depending on the length of the flash.

The Rice University lab of chemist James Tour is now able to «evolve» carbon through phases that include valuable nanodiamond by tightly controlling the flash Joule heating process they developed 18 months ago.

Best of all, they can stop the process at will to get product they want.

In the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano, the researchers led by Tour and graduate student and lead author Weiyin Chen show that adding organic fluorine compounds and fluoride precursors to elemental carbon black turns it into several hard-to-get allotropes when flashed, including fluorinated nanodiamonds, fluorinated turbostratic graphene and fluorinated concentric carbon.

With the flash process introduced in 2020, a strong jolt of electricity can turn carbon from just about any source into layers of pristine turbostratic graphene in less than a second. («Turbostratic» means the layers are not strongly bound to each other, making them easier to separate in a solution.)

The new work shows it’s possible to modify, or functionalize, the products at the same time. The duration of the flash, between 10 and 500 milliseconds, determines the final carbon allotrope.

Story Source: Materials provided by Rice University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.