# Topological carbon allotropes: paradigm shift for materials innovation

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel class of topological carbon allotropes, including a new 3D structure called Hopfene, which uses topological links to connect graphene sheets without traditional bonds, representing a paradigm shift in materials science.

## Contribution

The authors propose new topological structures for carbon allotropes, including the invention of Hopfene, a 3D material with linked graphene sheets using Hopf-links, expanding the design space for materials.

## Key findings

- Discovery of topologically linked carbon structures
- Introduction of Hopfene as a new 3D carbon allotrope
- Demonstration of topological robustness in material design

## Abstract

Topology is a central concept of mathematics, which allows us to distinguish two isolated rings with linked ones. In material science, researchers discovered topologically different carbon allotropes in a form of a cage, a tube, and a sheet, which have unique translational and rotational symmetries, described by a crystallographic group theory, and the atoms are arranged at specific rigid positions in 3-dimensional ($D$) space. However, topological orders must be robust against deformations, so that we can make completely different families of topological materials. Here we propose various topological structures such as knots and links using covalent $\sigma$ bonds of carbon atoms, while allowing various topologically equivalent arrangements using weak $\pi$ bonds. By extending this idea, we invented a new 3D carbon allotrope, Hopfene, which has periodic arrays of Hopf-links to knit horizontal Graphene sheets into vertical ones without connecting by $\sigma$ bonds.