A minimal cage of a diamond twin with chirality
Abstract
Diamonds enchant people with their beauty, which has also been defined by mathematics. The existence of strong isotropy with maximal symmetry in carbon networks has been mathematically disclosed, which has led to a proposal of a diamond twin. Unlike tetrahedral vertices of the diamond, trigonal vertices of the diamond twin achieve strong isotropy, notably, with chirality. In the diamond twin, 14 trigonal vertices are connected by 15 edges to form a minimal cage. Although the diamond-twin network indeed had a four-decade history in theory, it remained imaginary in reality due to its inevitable instability of the minimal cage. In this paper, the carbonaceous minimal cage of the diamond twin has been synthesized, which reveals unique structural features including helical chirality.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- February 2022
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.2120160119
- Bibcode:
- 2022PNAS..11920160F