Noble Amorphous Carbon Produced from Nanocrystal Precursors of Explosive Copper Acetylide

Abstract

Copper acetylide is an well-known explosive compound. However, when the size of their crystals is reduced to the nanoscale, their explosive nature is lost, owing to a much lower thermal conductance that inhibits explosive chain reactions. This less explosive character can be exploited for the production of new carbon materials. Generally, amorphous carbon is prepared by carbonization of organic compounds exposed to high temperature, which can induce partial crystallization in graphite. In this work, we present a new method in which the carbonization reaction can proceed at a lower annealing temperature owing to the highly reactive nature of copper acetylide, thus avoiding crystallization processes and enabling the production of genuinely amorphous carbon materials.