Fullerenes growth

Figure 6.23. Proposed mechanism for fullerene growth. Reprinted from Yamaguchi, Y Maruyama, S. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1998, 286, 343. Copyright 1998, with permission from Elsevier. 87985734.

Figure 6.29. Images of the calculated structures involved in the hole-repairing mechanism for endohedral fullerene growth. Shown from left to right are the Cyg open cage, top and side views of the CgY fragment, and the final Y Cg2 metallofullerene. Reproduced with permission from Gan, L.-H. Wang, C.-R. J. Phys. Chem. A 2005,109, 3980. Copyright 2005 American Chemical Society.

Many problems in electronic structure, cage isomerization, and fullerene growth become accessible when a complete set of isomers is available for the testing of ideas. A nomenclature based on the spiral code forms part of the lUPAC proposals on systematic naming of the fullerenes when labels based on atom count and symmetry... 

Hernandez, E., Ordejdn, R, 8c Terrones, H. (2001). Fullerene growth and the role of nonclassical isomers. Physical Review B, 63,193403-1-193403-4. 

The growth of a well ordered fullerene monolayer, by means of molecular beam epitaxy, has been used for the controlled nucleation of single crystalline thin films. The quality and stability of molecular thin films has been shown... 

Tanigaki K, Kuroshima S and Ebbesen T W 1995 Crystal growth and structure of fullerene thin films Thin Soiid Fiims 257 154-65... 

Key Words—Carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, STM, fibers, nanostructures, vapor growth. 

The growth pathway of various fullerene- and graphene-type nano-objects may be related. They are synthesized in the vapor phase and often appear simultaneously on the same sample. A common growth mechanism with similar nucleation seeds may, therefore, lead to these different structures. 

At the end of this section, let us return briefly to the spectra shown in Fig. 3. Notice the structure in the mass spectrum of QoCa, between the completion of the first metal layer at 32 and the second at 104. This structure is identical in the fragmentation mass spectra of fullerenes covered with Ca and with Sr. It is reminiscent of the subshell structure of pure Ca clusters. The subshells could be correlated with the formation of stable islands during the growth of the individual shells[10,l 1]. The sublayer structure we observe here may also give some clue to the building process of these layers. However, the data is presently insufficient to allow stable islands to be identified with certainty. 

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