The Influence of Ir and Pt Addition on the Synthesis of Fullerenes at Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract

The addition of metallic Ir and Pt to a fullerene‐forming, atmospheric‐pressure plasma reactor was found to influence the generation of carbonaceous products. It was observed that the added metals were efficiently dispersed into the plasma and that their presence increased the yield of fullerenes. The addition of Ir led to a noticeable shift in the fullerene distribution towards C₆₀, whereas the addition of Pt increased the proportion of C₆₀ oxides and decreased the proportion of higher fullerenes. Addition of Ir also caused a reduction of the soot particle size and the formation of a considerable quantity of carbon nanotubes.

Keywords:

• Fullerene synthesis
• Plasma
• Atmospheric pressure
• Fullerene derivatives
• Iridium
• Platinum

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the CRDF (grant RE1‐2231), the Federal Objective Scientific‐Technical Program “Research and Development in Priority‐Oriented Directions of Progress of Science and Technology,” the Russian Academy of Science (support of fundamental and applied research of young scientists of RAS) and the Russian Ministry of Education. RBW, SMB, and DAT are grateful to the Welch Foundation (grant C‐0807) for research support. We thank one of the manuscript reviewers for pointing out the possible presence of C₁₂₀O.