Boron nitride materials, preparing pure

Before that time, experimental evidence for the existence of heterofullerenes was very rare. In 1991 Smalley and co-workers [4,5] reported on the mass spectrometric detection of borafullerenes C5q B (n = 1-6) generated by laser vaporization of graphite-boron nitride composites. Later, in the same year, the preparation of several clusters was reported [6-8]. However, none of these species has been isolated or structurally characterized. In 1994 Clemmer et al. presented evidence for heterofullerenes containing a metal as part of the framework [9]. Muhr etal. reported on the preparation of monoborafullerenes however, presumably due to the instability of these systems, no pure material could be isolated and completely characterized [10]. Real preparative heterofullerene chemistry began in 1995. The... 

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