Protomene

Protomene Summary

History:
Protomene can be said to be the daughter of Novamene. Novamene has single atom (sp² bonded) carbon that provided the basis for Novamene to “switch” from semiconductor to metal. It is from on this concept that Protomene was born.

Description:

Novamene is a series of thousands of ring – sp2 carbon atoms surrounded by (sp3 ) hexagonal diamond;  while protomene has a combination of both sp2 single atoms. In short, protomene is composed entirely of switch carbon atoms with no hexagonal rings.

Protomene qualifies as a new potentially-useful direct-gap semiconductor. The energy band gap (see published paper below) is very close to that of gallium nitrides (GaN) which is approximately 3.4 eV at room temperature. As a consequence, protomene possesses similar semiconducting properties to GaN, which may enable it to have applications for high-power and/or high-frequency electronic devices with large breakdown voltages. Considering that it is a binary system, the control of GaN composition is challenging during the crystal growth, whereas protomene is a single-element carbon allotrope and defect control might be easier than for GaN. Due to the gap amplitude near the blue end of the visible spectrum, protomene may find applications in opto-electronic components, e.g. to blue- or UV-light generating light emitting diodes (LED), or as a UV filter in optics. Furthermore, the well-defined direct gap suggests that protomene may have more application in semiconductors devices than carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene in terms of energy band gap. Indeed, one obstacle to overcome in the fabrication of CNT is controlling whether the CNT is metallic and semiconducting. Protomene instead is predicted to be semiconducting up to a transition temperature.

Application Fields:

1. Opto-electronic components, e.g. to blue- or UV-light generating light emitting diodes (LED)
2. UV filter in optics
3. Semiconductors devices

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622317310692