Free-standing carbon nanomembranes (CNM) with molecular thickness and macroscopic size are fascinating objects both for fundamental reasons and for applications in nanotechnology. Although being made from simple and identical precursors their internal structure is not fully known and hard to simulate due to the large system size that is necessary to draw definite conclusions. We performed large-scale classical molecular dynamics investigations of biphenyl-based carbon nanomembranes. We show that one-dimensional graphene-like stripes constitute a highly symmetric quasi one-dimensional ground state. This state does not crosslink. Instead crosslinked structures are formed from highly excited precursors with a sufficient amount of broken phenyls. The internal structure of CNM is very likely a disordered metastable state which is formed in the process of cooling.
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