Electron-beam induced reaction between adjacent C-60 molecules in its film
has been investigated using in situ Fourier-transform (FT) infrared spectro
scopy and ex situ laser-desorption (LD) FT mass spectrometer. The results o
f FT-IR and LD FT-MS indicate that coalesced C-120 species were formed as a
main product in the EB irradiated C-60 film. Since the product for the lat
ter case was identified to be a C-120 bucky peanut using an FT mass spectro
meter and FT-IR, the present results suggest that EB irradiation induces a
coalescence between adjacent C-60 molecules, leading to the formation of a
new-form of carbon materials.