Abstract
In the first phase of the process, the higher fullerenes, mainly C76 and C84, as well as the basic fullerenes C60 and C70, in a smaller amount, were Soxhlet extracted with pyridine from the sample of initial carbon soot, produced in electrical arc. The extract was obtained in increased, high yield of 16.4%, due to application of the original procedure. The solubility of fullerenes in this solvent was determined. Chromatographic separation of fullerenes from pyridine extract was performed by continual elution, in one phase of the process, under atmospheric pressure, with original, defined gradient of solvents, from pure hexane to pure toluene, on active Al2O3 column, by a new, improved method. Identifications of fullerenes in the obtained chromatographically purified fractions and pyridine extract of the initial soot were performed using determined IR and UV/VIS techniques that have not been presented previously for the higher fullerenes.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Ministry of Science, Serbia, for financial support of the projects TR19056s and TR45009, and to MER Corporation, Tucson, Ariz., USA, for carbon soot material.