Effect of Catalysts on the Reaction of C₆₀ with Hydrogen

Abstract

The reaction of C₆₀/catalyst with hydrogen gas was studied at 400°C and 50 bar of H₂ pressure. The addition of Pt- or Ni-catalysts significantly accelerated kinetics of the hydrogenation reaction and resulted in a dramatic change of the C₆₀H_x crystal structure. Samples reacted without catalyst preserved the fcc structure typical for pristine C₆₀ but with expanded unit cells. Fulleranes C₆₀H_x obtained using catalytic hydrogenation exhibited not only the fcc structure (at relatively low hydrogenation degree) but also the bcc structure of C₆₀H_x (with x > 18). The bcc structure corresponds to highly hydrogenated material with an average volume per C₆₀ molecule of 817–849 ų.

Keywords:

• Fullerene
• fullerane
• hydrogenation
• hydrogenated fullerene
• metal catalysts

Acknowledgment

Ångpanneföreningens Forskningsstiftelse and KEMPE are acknowledged for financial support. Authors thank Dan Johnels for help with NMR measurements.