MECHANISM OF FULLERENE SYNTHESIS IN THE ARC REACTOR

A mathematical model for the are reactor which takes into account (a) cooling and mixing of carbon vapour with a buffer gas, (b) non-isother mal kinetics of carbon clusters growth and (c) formation of soot parti cles and heterogeneous reactions at their surface has been developed. The model gives quantitative coincidence of experimental data with cal culated values both for the fullerene yield and ratio C-70/C-60 in the products of the are synthesis run under widely varied conditions. Num erical analysis of the model has shown that experimental data obtained for the are synthesis strictly constrain the choice of the mechanism of fullerene formation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.