2013/07/12 by Toshihiko Fujimori, Aaron Morelos‐Gómez, Zhen Zhu +10 · 281 citations
Materials Science · Chemistry · #Graphene research and applications #Thermal properties of materials #2D Materials and Applications #Monatomic ion #Diffraction #Materials science #Sulfur #Carbon nanotube #Chemical physics #Synchrotron #Electron diffraction #Crystallography #Carbon fibers #Synchrotron radiation #Atom (system on chip) #Nanotechnology #Chemistry #Composite number #Physics #Optics #Composite material
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms3162
published in Nature Communications 4(1), 2162 (Nature Portfolio)
openalex publication_date 2013/07/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Despite extensive research for more than 200 years, the experimental isolation of monatomic sulphur chains, which are believed to exhibit a conducting character, has eluded scientists. Here we report the synthesis of a previously unobserved composite material of elemental sulphur, consisting of monatomic chains stabilized in the constraining volume of a carbon nanotube. This one-dimensional phase is confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Interestingly, these one-dimensional sulphur chains exhibit long domain sizes of up to 160 nm and high thermal stability (~800 K). Synchrotron X-ray diffraction shows a sharp structural transition of the one-dimensional sulphur occurring at ~450-650 K. Our observations, and corresponding electronic structure and quantum transport calculations, indicate the conducting character of the one-dimensional sulphur chains under ambient pressure. This is in stark contrast to bulk sulphur that needs ultrahigh pressures exceeding ~90 GPa to become metallic.