STUDIES ON THE RAPID PREPARATION OF FULLEROLS AND ITS FORMATION MECHANISM

In this paper, we introduce a very rapid preparation method to produce water soluble C-60 derivatives - fullerols by the reaction of C-60 wi th aqueous NaOH and H2O2 in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydroxi de(TBAH) as the catalyst, and the reaction is accelerated very much an d the reaction time is shortened from 1 similar to 3 d to 1 similar to 3 h by adding H2O2 to replace O-2 in the air as the oxidant. FTIR, H- 1 NMR and MALDI-TOF-MS proved the multi-hydroxy and C-60 cage structur e of the products. The hydroxylated fullerere epoxide - the intermedia te which is very easy to hydrolyze to become fullerols was obtained, a nd the formation mechanism of fulleols was put forward.