Oxidative Stability of Fullerenes

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry (1952) 1994-04, Vol.98 (15), p.3921-3923
• Main Authors: Scanlon, Joseph C, Brown, James M, Ebert, Lawrence B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 360604 > Materials-- Corrosion, Erosion, & Degradation; ALKYLATED AROMATICS; AROMATICS; CARBON; CARBONYL RADICALS; CHEMICAL REACTIONS; Chemistry; CRYSTAL GROWTH; DATA; ELEMENTAL MINERALS; ELEMENTS; Exact sciences and technology; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; EXTRACTION; FULLERENES; GRAPHITE; HYDROCARBONS; INFORMATION; INFRARED SPECTRA; Inorganic chemistry and origins of life; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Kinetics and mechanism of reactions; MATERIALS SCIENCE; MINERALS; MOLECULAR STRUCTURE; NONMETALS; NUMERICAL DATA; ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; OXIDATION; RADICALS; SEPARATION PROCESSES; SOOT; SPECTRA 400201 > Chemical & Physicochemical Properties; STABILITY; SYNTHESIS; TOLUENE
• ISSN: 0022-3654; 1541-5740
• DOI: 10.1021/j100066a001

Mixtures of fullerenes are more susceptible to oxidation than the pure phases of fullerenes. For example, a mixture of 90 wt % C[sub 60]/10 wt % C[sub 70] reacts with air at 300[degree]C for 24 h to yield a product containing 95% of the initial mass but which manifests an atomic ratio of carbon to oxygen of 2.3; in contrast, there is [le]1 wt % loss and no detectible oxygen content in 99.5% C[sub 60] under the same conditions. Furthermore, toluene-extracted fullerene soot prepared via the Kratschmer synthesis is found to be reactive to oxygen at ambient and higher temperatures. Room temperature handling of a toluene-extracted soot prepared from graphite leads to a steady-state oxygen content of about 3.8 wt % and a C/O atomic ratio of 33. Moreover, the reaction of extracted fullerene soot with air for 24 h at 300[degree]C yields a product of 60% of the initial mass of soot which contains 16.70 wt % oxygen and which shows a strong photoacoustically detected carbonyl infrared band at 1771 cm[sup [minus]1] and a C[sub sp2]-O band at 1249 cm[sup [minus]1]. With respect to changes in structure on heating in air, there is evidence for buckminsterfullerene (C[sub 60]) enhancing the growth of crystallite size measured along the (002), (100), and (110) directions of the soot relative to the case in which there is no buckminsterfullerene in the soot. 26 refs., 1 tab.