Narrowing band gap chemically and physically: conductive dense hydrocarbon

Nakagawa, Takeshi; Zhang, Caoshun; Bu, Kejun; Dalladay-Simpson, Philip; Vrankić, Martina; Bolton, Sarah; Laniel, Dominique; Wang, Dong; Liang, Akun; Ishii, Hirofumi; Hiraoka, Nozomu; Garbarino, Gaston; Rosa, Angelika D.; Hu, Qingyang; Lü, Xujie; Mao, Ho-kwang; Ding, Yang (2025) Narrowing band gap chemically and physically: conductive dense hydrocarbon. Communications Materials, 6 . ISSN 2662-4443

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Abstract

Enhancing intermolecular interactions can reduce the band gap energy of organic molecules. Consequently, certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – typically wide-band-gap insulators – may undergo insulator-to-metal transitions under simple compression. This pressure-induced electronic transition could enable the transformation of non-metallic organic materials into states exhibiting intriguing electronic properties, including high-temperature superconductivity. Here we investigate a pressure-induced transition in dicoronylene (C48H20), an insulator at ambient conditions, to a semiconducting state with a resistivity drop of three-orders-of-magnitude at 23.0 GPa. Through the complementary integration of transport property measurements with in situ UV-Visible absorption, Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiments, as well as first-principles studies, we propose a possible mechanism for the pressure-driven electronic structure evolution of C48H20. The discovery of an intriguing electronic transition at pressures well below the megabar observed marks a promising step towards realizing a single-component purely hydrocarbon molecular metal.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; dicoronylene; high pressure; insulator-to-semiconductor transition; phase transition
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics NATURAL SCIENCES > Interdisciplinary Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Division of Materials Physics
Depositing User:	Josipa Karadžole
Date Deposited:	22 May 2025 12:09
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/9830
DOI:	10.1038/s43246-025-00814-2

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