Crystalline Boron Carbide Encapsulated Into Carbon Nanoclusters from Arc-Discharge Soot

Abstract

ABSTRACTUsing a boron-containing composite anode in an arc discharge, we found in the soot on the reactor walls graphitic multiwalled carbon clusters that contained boron carbide crystals, as identified by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), and electron diffraction. The encapsulants are compounds of the lightest element that has yet been encapsulated, and the first of the non-metallic. The multiwalled graphitic cages partially encapsulating the boron compounds have rarely been observed in the soot of arc-discharge material produced from anodes not containing boron. We explain this exception by the known tendency of boron to catalyze graphitization.