FORMATION OF FULLERENES IN HIGHLY CONCENTRATED SOLAR FLUX

Of the many methods available to produce fullerenes, one of the most e xciting uses highly concentrated sunlight to vaporize the graphite. We have shown in recent experiments, as has the Rice University group, t hat this method can effectively produce these materials. The 10-kW sol ar furnace at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) was used with a reaction chamber designed to deliver to a graphite pellet a so lar flux of 1200 W/cm2. Analysis of the resulting soot by mass spectro metry and HPLC has confirmed the existence of fullerenes. Although our results show great promise, a number of fundamental issues still need to be addressed.