Investigation on Structure Transition of Fullerene During Mechanical Alloying and Subsequent Treatments

Abstract

Mechanical milling of fullerene (soot containing C60/C70 fullerenes in a 8:2 molar ratio) was investigated through various characterization methods. It was found that mechanical milling would not destroy the molecular structure of fullerene C60 (C70), while the long-range order of the face-centered-cubic crystalline structure was easily modified and transformed into amorphous phase, a mixture of fullerene C60 (C70) polymers and monomers. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis revealed a recovery of polymers to pristine fullerene molecules at 678 K, which is much higher than the reported depolymerization temperature of fullerene polymers induced by photo irradiation and by high-pressure–temperature processes. It is suggested that the contaminated Fe acts as a catalyst in the polymerization process.