In chemistry A carbyne is a monovalent carbon radical species. It occurs in several ways.

• A carbene can occur as a short lived reactive intermediate. For instance fluoromethylidyne (CF) can be detected in the gas phase by spectroscopy as an intermediate in the flash photolysis of CHFBr₂. ^[1]

• Carbynes are incorporated in metal carbyne complexes. For example in (Cl)(CO)(L₂)M(C-Ph) with the carbyne as phenylmethylidyne.

• Carbyne is also the name for the carbon allotrope that has the chemical structure ^[2] -(C:::C)_n- .Carbon in this modification is linear with sp orbital hybridisation and is a polymer with alternating single and triple bonds. This type of carbyne is of considerable interest to nanotechnology.

references

• ^[1] Chemistry of carbynes: reaction of CF, CCl, and CBr with alkenes B. P. Ruzsicska, A. Jodhan, H. K. J. Choi, O. P. Strausz, T. N. Bell; J. Am. Chem. Soc.; 1983; 105(8); 2489-2490.

• ^[2] Carbyne and Carbynoid Structures Series: Physics and Chemistry of Materials with Low-Dimensional Structures, Vol. 21 Heimann, R.B.; Evsyukov, S.E.; Kavan, L. (Eds.) 1999, 452 p., HardcoverISBN: 0-7923-5323-4