Abstract
The impact of the oxidizing agent ozone (O3) on the structure of the most common spherical allotrope of carbon, buckminsterfullerene (C60) is studied. Past studies measured ozonation of C60 over short periods of time. In this study, we establish that C60 is completely degraded, not polymerized, during ozonation. The techniques, laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry, UV/Vis absorbance spectroscopy, and FT-Raman are used to study the molecular degradation of the spherical allotrope C60 by O3.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation – Nanotechnology in Undergraduate Education (NSF-NUE) program to Valdosta State University. We would also like to thank Valdosta State University for equipment (FT-Raman, FT-IR, etc.) and lab space. The LD-RTOF measurements at the University of Georgia were supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (grant F49620-00-1-0118).