The roles of π electrons in the electronic structures and optical properties of graphyne

The electronic structures and optical properties of graphyne consisting of sp-and sp 2-hybridized carbon atoms are studied using first-principles calculations.A tight-binding model of the 2p z orbitals are proposed to describe the electronic bands near the Fermi level.The results show that the natural band gap of graphyne originates from the inhomogeneous bindings between differently-hybridized carbon atoms.The interlayer interactions of bulk graphyne narrow the band gap to 0.16 eV and result in redshift of the optical spectral peaks as compared to single-layered graphyne.