The Separation and Identification of Higher Molecular Weight Fullerenes

A nonaqueous, reversed-phase separation of the fullerenes is described. The bonded-phase, a polymeric octadecyl one, has previously been shown to have a very large separating power for nonplanar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This work shows that this shape selectivity also is found with the fullerenes, allowing very short retention times while maintaining separation of the C60 and C70 species. Additionally, a fraction containing larger fullerenes was isolated. UV absorbance spectra of these species were obtained. Preliminary spectra of hydrogen chemical ionization mass spectra were also obtained and showed that the fullerenes adsorb large amounts of molecular hydrogen.