Progress of Cryogenics and Isotopes Separation , ISSN: 1582-2575
2001, Volume 4, Issue 7+8

Experimental Study Concerning Fullerenes C60 Synthesis by Arc Discharge of Graphite

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental plant for production of fullerenes soot from graphite by arc discharge method. The metallic experimental plant uses spectral graphite electrodes put in the horizontal position, in the top of the reaction chamber. The experimental plant has the following parts: reactor chamber, ensembles of electrodes (anode and cathode), cooling system reactor chamber, cooling system of ensembles of electrodes vacuum system, electrical system and electronic system. To extract the fullerenes from the soot is used the Soxhlet extraction with toluene followed by diethyl ether washing extraction in a sonic bath. The C₆₀+C₇₀ mixture obtained is separate in its components using a chromatographic column with neutral alumina like stationary phase and hexane like mobile phase. The resulting powder is characterized by IR spectroscopy.