A single-source route to bulk samples of C3N and the co-evolution of graphitic carbon microspheres

Abstract The thermolysis of commercially available m-phenylenediamine (1,3-(NH2)2C6H4) at 800 °C under a static vacuum in a sealed quartz tube provides the first bulk synthesis of C3N, whose properties have only been predicted theoretically previously. Hollow carbon microspheres (CMSs) which do not contain significant nitrogen doping (1–3 μm diameter) are co-produced in the reaction and readily separated from the C3N flakes. The separate C3N flakes and CMSs have been characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. These studies show that the samples of C3N and CMSs both possess multi-layered turbostratic graphitic structures. A new mechanism for the template-free assembly of CMSs is proposed on the basis of electron microscopy that involves bubble evolution from a static carbonized layer.