RIKEN chemists have hit upon a fast and easy way to combine so-called nanobelts of carbon with sulfur-containing functional groups. The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

This new material has intriguing properties that make it promising for use in novel optoelectronic devices.

Ever since their discovery in 1991, carbon nanotubes—tiny hollow cylinders made entirely from carbon atoms—have been attracting a lot of interest, being used in applications ranging from electronics to medicine.