THERMAL-DIFFUSION OF FULLERENES IN SOLUTIONS

The phenomenon of the thermal diffusion of fullerenes in solutions con cerned with the fact of aggregation of fullerene molecules in clusters in organic solvents discovered recently is studied. The mechanism of this phenomenon based on the temperature dependence of the duster size distribution function is proposed. The temperature and concentration dependencies of the cluster size distribution function calculated prev iously are used to calculate the thermal diffusion coefficient of C-60 fullerene in toluene solution as a function of temperature and concen tration. It is shown that the mechanism spoken of dominates in thermal diffusion at the temperature above the phase transition temperature i n solid C-60. A contribution of the conventional mechanism of thermal diffusion caused by a considerable difference in fullerene and solvent molecule dimensions is estimated.