Isolation and Characterization of the Higher Fullerenes from Carbon Soot

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.

Keywords:

• Initial carbon soot
• higher fullerenes
• soxhlet extraction
• chromatography
• IR
• UV/VIS

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.