SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF C60 AND C70 FULLERENES BY A SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC METHOD

In all fullerene-producing systems, reaction products were black soot extracts reported to contain a 5–25% fullerene mixture. Toluene extraction of the soot results in a solution of C60, C70, and higherc fullerenes. Without separation, absolute determination of the contents is not possible, leaving the researcher to comment only on the C60/C70 ratio of the solution. High-performance liquid chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and scanning tunneling microscopy imaging techniques were reported in the literature for determining the C60/C70 ratio of the mixtures. These methods require tedious experiments and produce slightly differing results as well. In this communication, a new and relatively quick method is proposed for the simultaneous determination of the yields of C60 and C70 (not the ratio) in fullerene-containing solutions by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometric analysis.