PHOTOPHYSICAL AND PHOTOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE FULLERENES

This article primarily reviews the recent work of this laboratory on t he photophysical and photochemical properties of the fullerenes, C-60 and C-70, in solution. Properties of the excited singlet and triplet s tates of them have been characterised by static and transient fluoresc ence spectroscopy. Charge and / or proton transfer dynamics in ground and excited singlet state of the fullerenes with the amines have been investigated in detail. Strong evidence has been obtained for weak int eraction between the fullerenes and the aromatic solvents, like benzen e, toluene etc. A novel method has been described to solubilise C-60 i n aqueous solution via formation of inclusion complex with gamma-cylod extrin.