Formation of Fullerenes in Highly Concentratred Solar Flux

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/j100136a008

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