ChemInform Abstract: Superdense Carbon, C8: Supercubane or Analogue of γ-Si?
Abstract
A new crystalline allotrope of carbon, "C8", which has recently been claimed, following research on the plasma deposition of thin carbon films, and which is reported to consist of a body-centered cubic array of C8 cubes and termed "supercubane", is reinvestigated by means of a structural analysis combined with extended Hueckel band calculations.
ChemInform Abstract
A new crystalline allotrope of carbon, "C8", which has recently been claimed, following research on the plasma deposition of thin carbon films, and which is reported to consist of a body-centered cubic array of C8 cubes and termed "supercubane", is reinvestigated by means of a structural analysis combined with extended Hueckel band calculations. It is shown that a likely alternative structure for C8, which is reported to be denser than diamond, is the BC-8 structure adopted by the high-pressure γ-Si allotrope. Finally, the BC-8 structure is compared to a polymer of (1.1.1)propellane.
