Reactivity of C60 in pure oxygen

Abstract

In pure oxygen at moderate temperatures of 200 °C, an fcc C60 transforms into amorphous carbon-oxygen compounds and the icosahedral C60 molecular structure is destroyed. The maximum oxygen uptake of pure C60, O/C60, is 12. Isothermal TGA transformation curves are sigmoid-shaped with the kinetic exponent n∼5/2 which conforms with a two-dimensional nucleation and growth mode. The heat of formation for the carbon-oxygen compounds is 90 kcal/mol O, and the formation energy for the reaction: 60C (graphite)→C60 molecule is estimated to be ∼600 kcal/mol.