A carbyne can occur as a short-lived reactive intermediate. For instance, fluoromethylidyne (CF) can be detected in the gas phase by spectroscopy as an intermediate in the flash photolysis of CHFBr2.[1]
Carbyne, or polyyne, is also another name for Linear Acetylenic Carbon[5] (LAC), the carbonallotrope that has the chemical structure[6] -(C:::C)n- . Carbon in this modification is linear with sporbital hybridisation, and is a polymer with alternating single and triple bonds. This type of carbyne is of considerable interest to nanotechnology as its Young's modulus is forty times that of the hardest known material — diamond.[7]
References
^ Chemistry of carbynes: reaction of CF, CCl, and CBr with alkenes B. P. Ruzsicska, A. Jodhan, H. K. J. Choi, O. P. Strausz, T. N. Bell; J. Am. Chem. Soc.; 1983; 105(8); 2489-2490.
^ Dangerously Seeking Linear Carbon, Ray H. Baughman, Science 19 May 2006: Vol. 312. no. 5776, pp. 1009-1110.
^ Carbyne and Carbynoid Structures Series: Physics and Chemistry of Materials with Low-Dimensional Structures, Vol. 21 Heimann, R.B.; Evsyukov, S.E.; Kavan, L. (Eds.) 1999, p.452, Hardcover ISBN 0-7923-5323-4
^ Harder than Diamond: Determining the Cross-Sectional Area and Young's Modulus of Molecular Rods, Lior Itzhaki et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2005, 44, 7432-7435.
