  Nanoclusters like fullerenes as the unit to build intriguing two-dimensional
topological structures is of great challenge. Here we propose three bridged
fullerene monolayers and comprehensively investigate the novel fullerene
monolayer as synthesized experimentally Zheng et al.,[Nature 606, 507-510
(2022)] by state of the art first principles calculations. Our results show
that alpha-C60-2D has a direct bandgap of 1.49 eV owing to a flat conduction
band bottom close to the experimental value, the optical linear dichroism with
strong absorption in long-wave ultraviolet region, a small anisotropic Youngs
modulus, the large hole mobility, and the ultrahigh Seebeck coefficient at
middle low temperatures. Moreover, Li ions are found to migrate easily along
the X path in alpha-C60-2D. It is unveiled that the anisotropic optical,
mechanical, electrical, and thermoelectric properties of alpha-C60-2D originate
from the asymmetric bridging arrangements between C60 clusters. Our study
promises potential applications of monolayer fullerene networks in diverse
fields.
