Fullerene formation in the tracks of energetic ions

Abstract

Abstract Chromatographic analyses of solvent extracts from graphite bombarded with 130MeV/amu 161Dy22+ ions, and polyimide (kapton) bombarded with 5 MeV 6Li1+ ions, give clear evidence for the in situ synthesis of buckminsterfullerene -C60. The role played by the production of highly confined, dense assemblies of energetic electrons in this phase change is discussed.