Electron and phonon properties and gas storage in carbon honeycombs

Abstract

A new kind of three-dimensional carbon allotrope, termed carbon honeycomb (CHC), has recently been synthesized [PRL 116, 055501 (2016)]. Based on the experimental results, a family of graphene networks has been constructed, and their electronic and phonon properties are studied by various theoretical approaches. All networks are porous metals with two types of electron transport channels along the honeycomb axis and they are isolated from each other: one type of channel originates from the orbital interactions of the carbon zigzag chains and is topologically protected, while the other type of channel is from the straight lines of the carbon atoms that link the zigzag chains and is topologically trivial. The velocity of the electrons can reach ∼10⁶ m s⁻¹. Phonon transport in these allotropes is strongly anisotropic, and the thermal conductivities can be very low when compared with graphite by at least a factor of 15. Our calculations further indicate that these porous carbon networks possess high storage capacity for gaseous atoms and molecules in agreement with the experiments.