@article{edd15e4bc82b4103bf16a77910f75bf8,
title = "Conducting linear chains of sulphur inside carbon nanotubes",
abstract = "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.",
author = "Toshihiko Fujimori and Aar{\'o}n Morelos-G{\'o}mez and Zhen Zhu and Hiroyuki Muramatsu and Ryusuke Futamura and Koki Urita and Mauricio Terrones and Takuya Hayashi and Morinobu Endo and {Young Hong}, Sang and {Chul Choi}, Young and David Tom{\'a}nek and Katsumi Kaneko",
note = "Funding Information: T.F., H.M., M.T., M.E. and K.K. were supported by Exotic Nanocarbons, Japan Regional Innovation Strategy Program by the Excellence, JST. The synchrotron radiation experiments were performed at the BL02B2 of SPring-8 with the approval of the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) (Proposal No. 2011B1559 and 2012B1064). A.M.-G was in part supported by The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for electrical conductivity analysis. T.F. and T.H. were supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (No. 25820331) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 22510112) of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, respectively. D.T. and Z.Z. were partially supported by the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement no. EEC-0832785, titled {\textquoteleft}NSEC: Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing{\textquoteright}. Computational resources have been provided by the Michigan State University High Performance Computing Center. T.F. thanks H. Terrones for fruitful discussions.",
year = "2013",
doi = "10.1038/ncomms3162",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "4",
journal = "Nature communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
}