FULLERENES - C-60 FROM CAMPHOR - A NOVEL-APPROACH

C-60 and other members of the fullerene family have been isolated by vacuum evaporation technique from the toluene extract of ether insoluble camphor soot for the first time. Also, with the help of hot filament chemical vapour deposition technique, under the optimized conditions, we are able to avoid the tedious chromatographic separation method. Fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopic studies and scanning electron micrographs reveal the presence of C-60, a few smaller fullerenes and fullerene-based tubules of various sizes (0.14-1.15 mm