Polymerization to graphite-like nitride clusters from tetracyanoethylene vapor

Abstract

Various types of graphite-like nitride clusters were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition of tetracyanoethylene (TCE) onto a substrate of cleaved KCl crystals at 230–300 °C. At a low reaction temperature of 230 °C, TCE was polymerized to ribbon-like clusters, which resembled curved graphitic sheets. Upon increasing the reaction temperature to 250–300 °C, polymerized TCE condensed on KCl to form spheric clusters. The most regular structure of the clusters was obtained at 300 °C in a nanoscale needle-like morphology. High-resolution electron microscopy suggested that these clusters were composed of polymerized TCE layers with a interlayer distance of 0.34–0.35 nm.