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Abstract:
The investigation of structural and electronic properties of the novel family of fullerenes depends on the existence of pure reference materials. Sublimation of the van-der Waals solids is a suitable purification method. Little attention has been paid to the question about the air stability of such sublimed samples in form of crystals or thin films. A combination of thermat desorption spectroscopy,
thermal analysis and diffuse reflectance FT-IR spectroscopy is used to show the extent to which oxygen from dry air is intercalated
into fullerenes and which detrimental reactivity occurs from attempts to thermally remove (,,anneal") air-exposed samples. The
conclusion is that any fullerene sample exposed to air will be transformed in part into a polymeric non-fullerene carbon upon thermal treatment to above 400 K irrespective of its initial purity.
