Amorphous hydrocarbon diamond-like polymer as a precursor for diamond growth

A diamond-like polymer, poly(phenylcarbyne), was synthesized by reductive condensation of α,α,α-tricholorotoluene monomer with an ultrasonically-generated NaK alloy emulsion in tetrahydrofuran under an inert atmosphere. The polymer consists of a randomly constructed rigid network of tetrahedral polycarbyne units in which each carbyne carbon forms three C-C bonds to the network and one to a substituent structure of the polymer, which was analyzed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray photospectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The polymer is easily soluble in organic solvents to form a solution which can be applied to various substrates and forms films with a large area. By a simple heat-treatment process, this amorphous polymer can transform into diamond crystals at relatively low temperature (600 °C), and the structure of the diamond crystals was confirmed by micro-Raman spectroscopy. The correlation of thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA), FTIR and Raman spectra of polymers provides important information on the process of phase transformation.