Fullerenes produced by harnessing sunlight
Two independent groups of researchers have demonstrated that fullerenes can be produced by harnessing focused sunlight to vaporize carbon. Adapted to a large scale, generation of the carbon-cage molecules in solar furnaces might overcome yield-limiting problems associated with other fullerene production techniques, the researchers suggest. At Rice University, Houston, chemistry professor Richard E. Smalley and graduate students L.P. Felipe Chibante, Andreas Thess, J. Michael Alford, and Michael D. Diener used a parabolic mirror to focus sunlight on a graphite target to produce what appears to be a high yield of fullerenes. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, Colo., Roland R. Pitts, Mary Jane Hale, Carl Bingham, Allan Lewandowski, and David E.King, working in collaboration with Clark L. Fields, a chemistry professor at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, used NREL's high-flux solar furnace to produce soot that contains C[sub 60] and C[sub 70]. Papers describing the Rice and NREL results appeared together in last week's Journal of Physical Chemistry (97, 8696 and 8701 (1993)).
- OSTI ID:
- 5724703
- Journal Information:
- Chemical and Engineering News; (United States), Vol. 71:35; ISSN 0009-2347
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Production of fullerenes with concentrated solar flux
Related Subjects
14 SOLAR ENERGY
FULLERENES
PRODUCTION
GRAPHITE
SOLAR HEATING
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
EVAPORATION
SOLAR FURNACES
USES
CARBON
ELEMENTAL MINERALS
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FURNACES
HEATING
MINERALS
NONMETALS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
YIELDS
360601* - Other Materials- Preparation & Manufacture
140909 - Solar Thermal Utilization- Miscellaneous Solar Applications- (1980-)