In 2010, a new carbon allotrope was born, which brought a new member to the family of carbon materials. Its unique chemical and electronic structures provide unlimited space for scientific innovation of scientists. It shows infinite charm and great potential to promote the development of fundamental and applied science. Chinese scientists named the material “Shimoque.” New materials have become one of the keys to break through the bottleneck of science and technology. Inspired by this, many researchers are committed to discover or develop new materials in nontraditional architectures. The hybridization of carbon allotrope with sp‐hybridization is a very interesting research topic, because the acetylenic bond of sp can cause significant changes in the properties of carbon. The sp and sp² hybrid structures, and its intrinsic properties and performances illustrate that graphdiyne exhibits transformative properties and performances in the fields of catalysis, energy, optoelectronic and intelligent information, and so on.

Graphdiyne (GDY) shows the characteristics of sp‐ and sp²‐hybridized carbon atoms, which are fundamentally different from the sp³ and sp² hybridization of traditional carbon materials. It is rich in chemical bonds, highly conjugated, superlarge π structures, and has infinitely distributed cavities on the surface. GDY shows also high chemical activity and the functions of chemical reaction, chemical and physical doping, and chemical modification. Due to these exclusive structural features, GDY is expected to be a perfect and peculiar new carbon allotrope. As an important material, if you want to expand its application space, the material must be able to do “chemistry.” GDY represents a great advantage in chemical modification. Several methods have been developed to obtain GDY‐based materials such as invoke strains, B and N‐doping, halogen doping, as‐prepared nanostructures, controllable growth of aggregate structure with different dimensions, and hydrogenation, bromination, and fluorination have been developed for regulating band gap of GDY. As a new kind of carbon material, GDY's chemical and physical properties are of great concern to scientists. Therefore, many studies have focused on its basic properties for understanding the physical and chemical properties of GDY. These fundamental studies provide very important informations for GDY's further basic and applied research. Researchers can truly understand the structural and natural advantages of GDY and its development trend. Early fundamental and applied research gave researchers great confidence, that is, GDY demonstrated excellent and potential performance in catalysts, lithium ion batteries, sodium ion batteries, zinc water batteries, and fuel cells photoelectric conversion, optical devices and electrochemical intelligent and information devices, gas separation, and water purification. The infinite π bond on the GDY surface leads to high surface activity, which can interact with many units of organisms and can be used efficiently in life science–related research. So many biological and life scientists are also actively engaged in the field of research, aiming at toxicity, drug delivery, and therapy.

On the 10th anniversary of GDY discovery, at the invitation of Wiley publishers, we are very happy to write this book, which records the course and achievements of GDY research since 2010, from preliminary research to maturity, from fundamental research to application. The results demonstrate that GDY has strong potential for fundamental and applied researches. Preparation determines the future! In this book, we try to describe GDY‐related theoretical calculations and simulations, chemical and physical models, synthetic methodologies, controlled growth of aggregated state structures, structural characterization, fundamental physical and chemical properties, and GDY applications in many fields. After nearly 10 years of persistent work, scientific researches in different regions have shown that GDY has strong advantages in the fields of energy, catalysis and photoelectricity, electrochemical intelligent devices, and so on. We believe that in the next 10 years, GDY‐based materials should move rapidly toward the route of interdiscipline with different disciplines, and it is possible to show a powerful role in multidisciplinary crossing, and to become a model of cross‐fusion in important fields such as chemistry, physics, information science, material science, and environmental science. GDY demonstrated potential and exciting results, which prompted us to better complete this book and convey graphdiyne's theoretical and practical progress to students, teachers, and practitioners who wish to participate in the exciting development of the subject.

Yuliang Li

Beijing