Laser synthesis of fullerenes from benzene-oxygen mixtures

Based on the transfer of vibrational energy from a CO2-laser excited sensitizer (SF6) to benzene, the synthesis in a flux reactor of carbon soot containing fullerenes was performed. Obtained by feeding in the reaction chamber vapors of benzene based mixtures, the soot was further processed looking for the final C60/70 product. Fullerenes are produced in a continuous way at low or atmospheric pressure (200–760 Torr) under argon atmosphere. They are identified by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopies, high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques.