Synthesis of diamond via low pressure polymer precursor using microwave plasma-two dimensional growth phenomena

Diamond film can be synthesized from a phenylcarbyne polymer [C₆H₅C]_n which consists of randomly constructed rigid network of tetrahedral phenylcarbyne units, in hydrogen-acetone mixture by microwave plasma at low pressure. The diamond film contains diamond crystals with different size (from nanometers to micromerters). The diamond dendritic patterns and two-dimensional flattened diamond crystals has been observed after plasma treatment to the polymer. The experiment suggested that the polymer transformed to diamond is through an amorphous state, and two dimensional growth, i.e. layer by layer growth of diamond is possible using the polymer as a precursor.