Thermal stability of fullerenes: a shock tube study on the pyrolysis of and

Abstract

The thermal stability of fullerenes and dispersed in Ar was studied behind shock waves by following the time-dependent absorption and emission of the proposed decomposition product . The gas - particle mixtures filled into the shock tube were heated to temperatures at pressures of . Because of the relatively high vapour pressure of the fullerenes, they evaporate in a few microseconds so that both and are in the gas phase during most of the observation time. concentration profiles were measured by a ring dye laser spectrometer at . Simultaneously, the time behaviour of spectrally resolved light emitted from the shock-heated aerosol was recorded by an intensified CCD camera. A simplified reaction mechanism with both formation and consumption reactions was proposed and the experimental results were discussed in terms of kinetic parameters. Rate coefficients and of the initial pyrolysis reactions (R1) and (R2)