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Solubility of fullerenes
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The solubility of fullerenes is generally low. Carbon disulfide dissolves 8g/L of C60, and the best solvent (1-chloronaphthalene) dissolves 53 g/L. up Still, fullerenes are the only known allotrope of carbon that can be dissolved in common solvents at room temperature. Besides those two, good solvents for fullerenes include 1,2-dichlorobenzene, toluene, p-xylene, and 1,2,3-tribromopropane. Fullerenes are highly insoluble in water, and practically insoluble in methanol.
60 in solution
60 in extra virgin olive oil showing the characteristic purple color of pristine C
60 solutions
Solutions of pure C60 (buckminsterfullerene) have a deep purple color. Solutions of C70 are reddish brown. Larger fullerenes C
76 to C
84 have a variety of colors. C
76 has two optical forms, while other larger fullerenes have several structural isomers.
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General considerations
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Some fullerene structures are not soluble because they have a small band gap between the ground and excited states. These include the small fullerenes C
28,[1] C
36 and C
50. The C
72 structure is also in this class, but the endohedral version with a trapped lanthanide-group atom is soluble due to the interaction of the metal atom and the electronic states of the fullerene. Researchers had originally been puzzled by C
72 being absent in fullerene plasma-generated soot extract, but found in endohedral samples. Small band gap fullerenes are highly reactive and bind to other fullerenes or to soot particles.
Solubility of C
60 in some solvents shows unusual behaviour due to existence of solvate phases (analogues of crystallohydrates). For example, solubility of C
60 in benzene solution shows maximum at about 313 K. Crystallization from benzene solution at temperatures below maximum results in formation of triclinic solid solvate with four benzene molecules C
60·4C
6H6 which is rather unstable in air. Out of solution, this structure decomposes into usual face-centered cubic (fcc) C
60 in few minutes' time. At temperatures above solubility maximum the solvate is not stable even when immersed in saturated solution and melts with formation of fcc C
60. Crystallization at temperatures above the solubility maximum results in formation of pure fcc C
60. Millimeter-sized crystals of C
60 and C
70 can be grown from solution both for solvates and for pure fullerenes.[2][3]
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Solubility table
The following are some solubility values for C
60 and C
70 from the literature, in grams per liter.[4][5][6][7][8]
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See also
References
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