Large Area C60 Film Obtained by Microwave Oven Irradiation from an Organic Resin

Abstract

In the present work the synthesis of fullerene thin film produced in a conventional microwave oven from the decomposition of terpenoid is reported. The polycrystalline structure of the sample was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD); the sample showed several phases, and the main phase corresponds to fullerene ordered in a face-centered cubic structure (FCC), with a lattice parameter a=14.16 Å, with two more structures: one is orthorhombic system with lattice parameters a=9.53 Å, b=8.87 Å, and c=8.354 Å, and the other is the monoclinic system with lattice parameters a=10.24 Å, b=7.80 Å, c=9.49 Å, and β=92.4° coexisting also with graphite 2H phase with lattice parameters a=2.46 Å, c=6.71 Å. It was observed in a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) that the sample formed thin films of stacked carbon. The film thickness was measured by a SEM, and it was 140.8 to 523 nm and the macroscopic area of 12 cm2, whereas a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed that the main phase of the material is C60 ordered in a face-centered cubic structure (FCC). In the sample surface by atomic force microscopy (AFM), islands deposited crystals were observed having symmetry 4-3m crystal habit associated with the tetrahedron.