Photochemically Assisted High-Pressure Synthesis of Furan-Derived Nanothreads

One-dimensional sp3-bonded carbon nanothreads (DNTs) represent a frontier in materials science, offering extreme tensile strength and stiffness. However, current synthesis routes rely on the pressure-induced polymerization (PIP) of benzene at extreme pressures (>20 GPa), a process that is energy-intensive and difficult to scale. This study proposes a novel, sustainable pathway utilizing biomass-derived furan as a precursor. Unlike non-polar benzene, furan possesses a permanent dipole moment and reduced aromatic stabilization, features hypothesized to lower the activation barrier for polymerization. We present a reactor design integrating UV-transparent Moissanite (6H-SiC) anvils within a large-volume press to couple ultraviolet excitation (300–400 nm) with static compression (∼8 GPa). We hypothesize that UV irradiation induces [4+4] cycloaddition dimerization, creating “structural seeds” that propagate sp3-rich thread formation at pressures significantly lower than thermal initiation thresholds. This work outlines the thermodynamic rationale, detailed experimental methodology, and a multi-modal verification framework (Raman, TEM, ssNMR) to distinguish crystalline furan-derived nanothreads (FNTs) from amorphous polymers.