8.2 Fullerene Synthesis Lab Report

In September of 1985 Kroto, Heath, O’Brien, Curl, and Smalley were investigating sources of the long carbon chain molecules in the interstellar medium and how they might be related to soot formation.1 Smalley developed a laser vaporization cluster beam apparatus that allowed for the mass-spectrometric study of stable clusters formed in a helium-entrained plasma produced by a pulse of laser aimed on at a solid target.2 This experimental technique was a very important discovery to cluster science because it made refractory clusters available for detailed study for the first time.2 Smalley initially used this technique to analyze the molecular structure of SiC2, but Kroto decided to replace the SiC2 with graphite.2 He believed this technique …show more content…
The main advantage to using this method is that it has a lot of synthetic control.3 Fullerene precursors with nitrogen heteroatoms installed on them can be synthesized, and after the fullerene has formed the nitrogen will stay in it’s preselected place.3 This allows for making very specific fullerenes that could be needed for other reactions.3 For example triazafullerene, C57H33N3, has successfully been created using this method.3

This is a step toward a potential route to hetero- and endohedral metallo-fullerenes; as well as adapting this synthesis in a way so they can encapsulate small molecules inside the fullerene.3
While scientists are still presently researching ways to adapt the surface catalyzed synthesis; Kurotobi and Murata discovered a synthetic route to insert a single water molecule into a