Inert atmospheres cleaning residues

Property measurements of fullerenes are made either on powder samples, films or single crystals. Microcrystalline C6o powder containing small amounts of residual solvent is obtained by vacuum evaporation of the solvent from the solution used in the extraction and separation steps. Pristine Cgo films used for property measurements are typically deposited onto a variety of substrates (< . , a clean silicon (100) surface to achieve lattice matching between the crystalline C60 and the substrate) by sublimation of the Cr,o powder in an inert atmosphere (e.g., Ar) or in vacuum. Single crystals can be grown either from solution using solvents such as CS and toluene, or by vacuum sublimation [16, 17, 18], The sublimation method yields solvent-free crystals, and is the method of choice. 

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