Menny Shalom

The synthesis of carbon nanoarchitectures from pre-organized precursor complexes with appropriate bonding patterns, here squaric acid and urea, is described. It is shown that depending on the precursor ratio, different crystal morphologies are formed, which can be transformed into nitrogen-containing carbons with either lamellar or hollow tube-like morphology. It is noted that despite the very different architecture, the composition of the final carbons is always close to a ‘C₂N’ stoichiometry.